Our Hospice Care Team: Delivering Comfort, Peace and Dignity

Caring for a loved one with a life-limiting illness at the end of life involves caring for the whole person to provide the highest degree of comfort, peace, and dignity. While caring for someone through a serious illness is strenuous — both physically and emotionally — it is also rewarding and a priceless gift to give. 

With a hospice care team, you don’t have to take this journey alone. By reducing the pain and symptoms of illness, the hospice care team improves quality of life for the entire family. Each member of the care team brings their own expertise and fulfills a specific purpose – this is known as an interdisciplinary approach. This team approach ensures care for the whole person and puts patients’ preferences, and that of their loved ones, first.

Meet the Hospice Care Team

The hospice care team is made up of several individuals all working together to ensure that patients’ physical, emotional and spiritual needs are met. They also provide support and valuable education to loved ones. 

The Hospice Physician

Each patient gets a hospice physician who works closely with the hospice nurse to recommend and prescribe appropriate medications to help manage pain and symptoms related to your illness. The physician closely monitors the progression of your illness and coordinates care with other hospice team members and your attending physician. 

The Hospice Nurse

The hospice nurse makes scheduled visits during the week to assess, manage and address symptoms related to your illness and provides hands-on patient care. The nurse also delivers education and training to your primary caregiver on your illness, how to best care for you and administer medications you are taking for pain and symptom management. 

The Hospice Social Worker

The hospice social worker has specialized training in providing counseling and emotional support to patients and their families. The social worker makes scheduled visits and may assist with tasks such as completion of legal and financial documents, finding sources of assistance for patient and family needs, and planning for funeral arrangements.

The Hospice Aide

The hospice aide provides personal care services such as bathing; dressing; skin; mouth and hair care; and other activities of daily living, like assisting with transferring from a bed to a chair. Hospice aide visits help ease the burden on family caregivers. Your hospice care team will talk with you about your needs and develop a plan for how often the hospice aide will visit.

The Hospice Chaplain

The hospice chaplain has specialized training in addressing spiritual concerns that often arise at the end of life. The hospice chaplain is non-denominational and never tries to replace your faith community or change your spiritual beliefs. The chaplain works with you to maximize your spiritual strength to promote inner peace and comfort and is available to you and your family. 

The Hospice Volunteer

Trained hospice volunteers are important members of our hospice care team. They can provide companionship for you as well as respite and support for your family. They serve as a compassionate friend, ready to listen and care unconditionally. Some volunteers may be available to honor patients who are veterans by conducting special pinning ceremonies to show appreciation for a patient’s military service to our country. 

The Hospice Grief Counselor

The hospice grief counselor provides counseling to you and your family. Grief support services are available to you at any time and continue to be available for your family members and loved ones up to 13 months following death to help facilitate a healthy grieving process. 

Scheduled Visits and 24/7 Support

Hospice care team members are dedicated to keeping patients as comfortable as possible through pain and symptom management during regularly scheduled visits. Visits are conducted in private residences, assisted living and skilled nursing homes, and hospitals. 

Hospice care team members are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. After hours, Lower Cape Fear LifeCare ensures patients and families receive around-the-clock access to an on-call nurse for emergencies. They can reach the on-call nurse by phone at night, on weekends and on holidays. On-call nurses make home visits when necessary.

Acute and Respite Care

Lower Cape Fear LifeCare’s three hospice care centers  are available if a patient’s pain and symptoms cannot be managed in a residential setting. These serene, home-like facilities provide around-the-clock clinical care as well as emotional and spiritual support for patients and their loved ones. Their large private rooms can also accommodate overnight stays by a family member. Patients and families are encouraged to bring personal items to make the patient feel more at home.

The care centers also offer respite care, on an as available basis, so that caregivers can get a much-needed break, take care of their own health concerns, or attend a family gathering. The Medicare Hospice Benefit provides for patient stays of five consecutive days each time they get respite care.

Don’t wait. Get the care and support you need today.

When opting for the comfort hospice care offers at the beginning of a terminal diagnosis, instead of waiting until a crisis occurs, you and your loved ones can benefit from the months of care and support hospice offers. Studies have shown that hospice patients may live longer than those who do not receive hospice.