About this course
This course teaches comfort-focused physical care at the end of life to hospice aides, hospice nurses, and the schedulers and managers who support them. Part one sets the frame: what the Medicare hospice Conditions of Participation actually require for physical care, and exactly where a hospice aide's scope begins and ends. Part two covers pain: how hospice assesses it, how to read pain in a patient who cannot tell you, the World Health Organization principles of by mouth, by the clock, for the individual and with attention to detail, around-the-clock dosing and breakthrough doses, and the opioid myths that leave patients hurting. Part three covers the non-pain symptoms you will meet almost every week: breathlessness, nausea and vomiting, constipation, restlessness and terminal delirium, and terminal secretions. Part four covers the body itself: positioning, pressure injury prevention, skin care and skin failure at the end of life, and mouth and eye care. Part five covers nutrition and hydration at the end of life, why appetite loss is normal, and when feeding causes harm. Part six teaches you to recognize the actively dying patient, what to do at the bedside, and what to report immediately. Every section separates what you observe and report from what the registered nurse assesses and orders. Suitable for hospice aide orientation before unsupervised patient care, for the annual twelve hours of hospice aide in-service training, and for nursing and scheduling staff who need a shared vocabulary of comfort care.