Author:
HAWTHORNE DENISE L.,YURKOVICH NANCY J.
Abstract
Hope is the anticipation of something better to come and an essential
component of life. It is a complex notion that is fundamental to the
promise of health care. Initially, hope is for cure or restoration of
health but in terminal illness, when there is no longer the possibility of
cure, hope rests in the knowledge and skill of the medical scientist to
alter the course of disease and to prolong life. It is this expectation
for renewed physical being that is the focus of every intervention. At the
end of life, when science can do no more, hope endures, but the focus of
hope changes. It becomes hope to find meaning in life, as it was lived,
and in the time that remains. For most, however, the end of life unfolds
in the scientific milieu of the hospital where the significance of
redefining hope may not be considered, and many die without hope. The
purpose of this article is to explore the meaning of hope, to highlight
the necessity of redefining hope at the end of life, and to emphasize the
importance of sanctuary in engendering hope through relationship. Hospice
is proposed as a sanctuary for the final days, where the patient, family,
and health professional discover a new meaning of hope through shared
human experience.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Psychiatry and Mental health,Clinical Psychology,General Medicine,General Nursing
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