Hospice Ethics: Policy and Practice in Palliative Care

Oxford: Oxford University Press (2014)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This book identifies and explores ethical themes in the structure and delivery of hospice care in the United States. As the fastest growing sector in the US healthcare system, in which over forty percent of patients who die each year receive care in their final weeks of life, hospice care presents complex ethical opportunities and challenges for patients, families, clinicians, and administrators. Thirteen original chapters, written by seventeen hospice experts, offer guidance and analysis that promotes best ethical practice for hospice organizations and professionals. The book addresses common questions and issues faced by those who work in hospice care, a dynamic movement that, in only 30 years, has shifted from an all-volunteer care alternative at the end of life to a highly regulated industry in which over half of providers are for-profit enterprises in a very competitive health care marketplace. The chapters show how the history and philosophy of hospice care can inform the values and composition of care teams, the operations of inpatient units, and access to care for pediatric and long-term care populations. Various chapters propose frameworks for deliberating organizational approaches to ethical questions in changing regulatory and legal environments, including a model for hospice ethics committees. The final chapter outlines an expanded model of hospice as a community based, interdisciplinary, and holistic form of palliative care emphasizing advance planning, case management, and a flexible spectrum of services. This model can serve as a centrepiece for a new quality of life and social support approach, not only to terminal care, but also long-term care during the later stages of chronic illness and fraility.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 98,098

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Ethics Committees for Hospice.Jennifer Ballentine & Pamela Dalinis - 2014 - In Timothy W. Kirk & Bruce Jennings (eds.), Hospice Ethics: Policy and Practice in Palliative Care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The continuingly evolving role of the hospice medical director.Joan Harrold - 2014 - In Timothy W. Kirk & Bruce Jennings (eds.), Hospice Ethics: Policy and Practice in Palliative Care. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-08-25

Downloads
40 (#447,310)

6 months
6 (#743,012)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Bruce Jennings
Vanderbilt University
Timothy Kirk
York College (CUNY)

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references