Through this course, I have been introduced to many topics related to Health and illness. So when asked to read a book on a specific area of the course, I have chosen to read The Handbook of Hospice Care. My reason for choosing this topic is personal. I know individuals who have gone through this care program and I also have a relative who is a hospice nurse, my mother.
             When my grandmother was in the last stages of cancer, hospice was the best thing for my family and my grandmother. Although my grandmother was very sick, I felt so much better seeing her in her own home than in the hospital. This may sound strange because when you imagine someone dying from cancer you picture him or her in the hospital receiving aggressive treatment. But this was not the case for my grandmother. We knew that the inevitable was going to happen and we wanted my grandmother to die as peacefully as possible. This is the essence of Hospice. "We know we can alleviate human suffering and help relieve mental and emotional anguish. It is our hope that, during the process, we can also further the cause of death with dignity and makes a contribution in the struggle for human rights. Compassion in dying responds to a moral imperative which can no longer be denied by humanists and other compassionate people." [Dority 1993] Without hospice, I feel that the passing o!
             f my grandmother would have been more painful. Hospice allows my grandmother to be with us, her family, in a comfortable and familiar setting, enabling everyone to realize that she would be gone and we would have closure by seeing her die in no pain.
             The other experience that I have with hospice is that my mother is a hospice nurse. My mom has not always been a hospice nurse but for the past 7 years it has been a devotion of hers. I feel that is important to mention her because I have asked her on more than one occasion, "How can you do what you do?" Even when she...