Dying Declarations: Notes from a Hospice Volunteer / Edition 1

by David B Resnik

Overview

"Death strips away all of the superficial and mundane details of living and leaves behind life’s bare essentials."

Death is inevitable in life. It knows no boundaries. It knows no skin color, no financial or social standing. It knows nothing but itself. The paradox of Dying Declarations: Notes from a Hospice Volunteer is in its warm affirmation of life through the ’dying declarations’ of patients who are peering into the cold face of death. The author reveals personal experiences about life, death, and the courage to strip away the unimportant aspects of life to make way for a clearer understanding on just what is truly important. Simple, moving stories invigorate and spark insights—while discussing all aspects of hospice volunteering.

"By facing death on a regular basis, one can no longer maintain a tight grip on the masks, games, and trivialities that one uses to hide from truth. The person who looks death in the eye becomes more honest, grateful, compassionate, and humble." In Dying Declarations: Notes from a Hospice Volunteer, the author shares his experiences and the lessons he learned from the dying while working as a hospice volunteer. The stories, rather than being sad and depressing, present the author’s hospice experience as being some of the most personally uplifting and enriching experiences of his life.

In Dying Declarations: Notes from a Hospice Volunteer you will learn:

• about training for hospice work
• why hospice volunteers are at times more beneficial to the well-being of dying patients than family, clergy, or medical personnel
• the three basic tasks for a hospice volunteer
• how children and dogs can be beneficial for patients
• the impact that a dying patient can have on the life of a hospice volunteer
• words of wisdom about living life, directly from hospice patients
  
  

Dying Declarations: Notes from a Hospice Volunteer will inspire and enlighten hospice volunteers, nurses, physicians, clergy, social workers or anyone who works for hospice or provides end-of-life care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789025449
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/14/2005
Series:	Haworth Pastoral Press Religion and Mental Health Series
Pages:	98
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 8.84(h) x 0.52(d)

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1. Hospice Training
• Chapter 2. We Need to Get Some Wood in Before Winter
• Chapter 3. One M&M at a Time
• Chapter 4. See the World While You Can
• Chapter 5. I Have a Dream
• Chapter 6. I Can Fix It
• Chapter 7. Piggly Wiggly Has the Best Service
• Chapter 8. Give Yourself Some Living Room
• Chapter 9. Plant a Garden
• Chapter 10. I Need to Go to Church
• Chapter 11. I Knew You Were Okay When I Saw You Pull up in a Ford Truck
• Chapter 12. You Don’t Know All the Bad Things I’ve Done
• Chapter 13. He Was a Helluva Ballplayer
• Chapter 14. Euthanasia
• Bibliography
• Index
• Reference Notes Included
  

What People are Saying About This

Susan Redding

Susan Redding, MSN, FNP-C, Clinical Nurse Specialist for Advance Care Planning and End-of-Life Care, Pitt County Memorial Hospital End-of-Life Care Program, Greenville, North Carolina
RRECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE WHO MAY BE CONSIDERING VOLUNTEERING SOME OF THEIR TIME AS A HOSPICE VOLUNTEER. Dr. Resnik has given us a wonderful collection of stories that illustrate the richness of the experience of living with dying. He takes his readers on a journey into the lives of hospice patients and their families as he shares his experiences as their hospice volunteer. The reader will come away with a sense of the gifts that can come from sharing this special time of life with dying people and their loved ones.

George Ho Jr. MD

George Ho, Jr., MD, Professor of Medicine, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University
RECOMMEND THIS BOOK to any health care professional who cares for patients near the end of life. Professionals who enjoy knowing their patients as people with illnesses will find these stories meaningful and remind them of why they pursued a career in medicine. Finally, anyone wishing to do hospice work or to be hospice volunteers, but are undecided, will find this book helpful in decision-making.