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<\/p>\nA hospice nurse has shared the key signs that indicate whether a loved one is in the final stages of life or just seriously ill<\/p>\n
There are things you can do to support loved ones through their death<\/p>\n
A hospice nurse has explained the signs that may suggest a seriously ill loved one is approaching the end of their life, and why families should speak to medical professionals about what comes next. Julie, who is also an author, shared her advice on social media after being asked how to tell whether someone is dying or is very unwell.<\/p>\n
She highlighted two groups: elderly people with long-standing, life-limiting conditions, and those who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Increasing weakness and repeated hospital admissions were among the changes she urged families to consider.<\/p>\n
For those caring for someone close to them, she stressed the importance of discussing their wishes and quality of life with the healthcare team, rather than waiting for a crisis.<\/p>\n
She said: “How do you know if they’re actually dying, or if they’re just really sick? Here’s a few ways. Generally speaking, there’s things you look at. There’s two different types of patients here usually. Very elderly people who have illnesses, but not like terminal.”<\/p>\n
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“They have life-limiting illnesses – COPD, dementia, Parkinson’s, CHF – but long-standing, right? And they’re elderly. What you’re going to see a lot is them slowly declining, and then they’re going to have these periods of time where they’re going to be in and out of the hospital all the time.<\/p>\n
“You have to ask yourself: How old are they? What diseases do they have? How often are they in the hospital? Are their lengths of stay getting longer and longer? What’s their quality of life? If someone is elderly and they’re experiencing all these things I’m talking about, you need to start thinking about their end-of-life journey. They might not die right then.”<\/p>\n
What should loved ones do when someone close to them is nearing the end of their life?<\/p>\n
Julie went on to offer guidance to families on how to support someone they believe may be in the final stages of their life.<\/p>\n
She said: “Talk to the medical professionals you’re working with. Start thinking about what they would want. If they can tell you, ask them. If they can’t tell you, think about who they are, how they are, what they’ve said in the past.<\/p>\n
“It’s about preserving their quality of life. It’s about giving them a peaceful death, not one that’s urgent and in the hospital, and planning for it. And I’m telling you, the more you plan for it, the better it’s going to be.<\/p>\n
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Close-up of caregiver holding senior client hand. Support from nurse to patient, taking care of elderly man in hospital. Emotional support and care in healthcare, hospice care.<\/p>\n
“Now, the other population would be someone who is terminally ill. They know they’re terminal, they’re going to die from this disease. They’re not sure exactly when, but they were likely going to die from this disease. If that person is getting weaker and weaker and weaker and needs to go in and out of the hospital more and over and over again – weaker, weaker, weaker, not eating and drinking, sleeping a lot – they are dying.<\/p>\n
“If someone has a terminal illness and they’re experiencing all of those things, this is it. And this is when we all need to accept that so they can have a peaceful death. A peaceful, planned death that can be in their home, surrounded by loved ones.<\/p>\n
“Maybe they’re not going to die that day, but we’re getting close, and it’s time to accept that so they can have a peaceful death however they choose. And maybe that actually is in the hospital, that’s up to them.<\/p>\n
“But if they’ve said, ‘I don’t want to suffer, I want to be around friends and family, I want to be at home,’ this is the time, okay? And you need to ask your healthcare workers that you’re working with: ‘Hey, be honest with me. Tell me what’s up. Is this time? If this was your loved one, what would you do?’ Ask them those questions, and hopefully they’ll give you the real answers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hospice nurse has shared the key signs that indicate whether a loved one is in the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,3267,61,60],"class_list":["post-656463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-hospitals","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}