NewsLine - August 2012 - (Page 32)

Short Takes continued from previous page A Hospice Nurse Offers a Lasting Gift to Patients and Families “There is a great similarity in the dying process, regardless of place or time of death. For five years I have been finding this parallel in the homes of families living in well-appointed mansions and in old cluttered campers. What is the same is the way people lovingly touch each other with such profound tenderness. Love is what survives any prognosis to the last breath; love is all that is left in the end. This is what I strive to photograph…. I primarily serve folks with end-stage dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, and many of these lovely people die alone. For two years I photographed the hands of these hospice patients as I held their hands, and shared the photographs with their families who lived out of state. It brought them comfort to see that their loved ones were not alone. Then about 10 months ago, I started offering families hand portraits and, if desired, photographs of faces. I usually offer this service while I am at a scheduled nursing visit. The nurses and social workers with whom I work also offer my photography service to patients and families. (I always carry my camera with me, along with my stethoscope!) I don’t advertise this service in any other way… I’m busy enough! While it takes me less than three minutes to take the photos, Mary Landberg is a hospice nurse for Asante Hospice at Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, Oregon. She is also a photographer. So in 2011, she began photographing hospice patients and their families free of charge. She gives each patient and family a framed print of one of the photographs she has taken and a CD containing all of them. With the patient and family’s permission, she also shares the photographs on Facebook. It is a kind gesture that, in her words, makes the love she has the privilege to witness every day—endure. But it is also a wonderful reflection on hospice care—and helps communicate the care and compassion that sets hospice apart. In the following narrative, she talks about her work. It may inspire the talented photographers in your program to consider doing the same? 32 NewsLine http://www.facebook.com/#!/HospicePortraitsByMaryLandberg

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NewsLine - August 2012

Creating Opportunities Through Diagnosis-specific Programming
A Message From Don
Free Community Assessment Tool
Blogging for the Hospice Clinician
Custom-print Marketplace (display ad)
Hospice of Michigan’s @HOMe Support
The Voice of NCHPP
Managing Stress
Quality Reporting Deadlines Draw Near
A Hospice Nurse Offers a Lasting Gift
Essential Health Benefits Update
NHPCO Members Receive Health Care Innovation Awards
Add CGAs to Your Giving Menu (display ad)
Simione: Solving Your Hospice Challenges (display ad)
Compliance Tip of the Month
CTC 2012 (display ad)
Resource Links to Bookmark
Videos Worth Watching
News From FHSSA

NewsLine - August 2012