My mother, an ICU nurse for over 20 years, is often asked how she can handle a job where so many people are close to death.  “It doesn’t make me concentrate on death, since we will all confront it someday.  It just reminds me that we’re here and healthy now, so embrace life!” is generally how she responds.  Of course, she’s human, sometimes the emotion of being around serious illness so often can be overwhelming, but she finds the satisfaction of helping her patients outweighs the distress of being confronted with mortality.

Jeanne Denney posted an interesting article on her blog yesterday that highlights a similar outlook on hospice care, where death generally is imminent.  While some feel that not thinking about death will allow them to live forever, Denney says, “is it really a benefit NOT to plan on dying given that the death rate throughout history is still hovering at 100.00000000%?” She notes that being a hospice worker can often be an emotionally trying position, but emphasizes that planning for how patients spend their final months on earth can make death a peaceful transition and ease some of the burden for their families.

Readers:  What are your thoughts on Jeanne Denney’s article?  Are you a hospice employee whose friends are baffled that you can still smile while seeing illness every day?  Has a loved one of yours been a hospice patient?  We invite you to discuss this in the comments section below.