After a year at a senior living facility as a CNA and CRMA my thoughts on death has changed constantly. Seeing the different stages of deaths, various reasons for death and all the different family dynamics can be a real eye opener. Being the one to medicate the resident and seeing the differences between a comfortable death and one that wasn't medicated for comfort lead me to feel that keeping the person as comfortable as possible would be best. This isn't always possible, for example I had a resident who fell out of bed and broke a hip, this hip fracture advanced infection and with leukemia couldn't fight it off and went into active dying, even with the scheduled and PRN Morphine and Ativan this resident was very uncomfortable. Even the easy tasks of cleaning and changing briefs turned into excruciating pain for this poor man. Finally with death knocking, Hospice increased the morphine and gave a big boost of Atropine to clear the lungs finally this poor man was in peace and passed shortly after.
After seeing this I knew my views of Comfort meds changed I knew people who think that giving these meds shorten the life of an actively dyeing person (which it may) but to me I would rather see someone not have to suffer especially during their last moments on this earth.
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Watching a patient Die...... ;,(
What are your emotions when watching a patient/resident pass?
How does this affect your views on life?
Have you experienced this and how do you feel about it?
Is there cultural/religious views on death that doesn't allow comfort meds? Why?
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