Abstract
What do older people hope for as they reach the end of their lives and how can professional careers nurture that hope? Drawing on the literature regarding end-of-life care, this paper has particular application for residential aged care but also for a variety of other aged care settings. Hope, in this paper, is not to be equated with some esoteric intangible fantasy; neither is it isolated from the need for impeccable clinical care. While hope may not be scientifically observable it can, nevertheless, be grounded in human care. To nurture hope in the face of death is to enter the dying person's story: to look behind the immediately observable, to ask what life and death mean for this particular person in this particular place at this particular time. Focussing on the everyday lived experience, contrasts will be drawn between realistic hope, wishful thinking, and false consolation. Is it humanly possible to be hope-full in a seemingly hope-less situation? While death can mean the ‘dashing’ of all hopes, this paper provides some practical examples of a ‘good death’ that fosters hope in the face of the inevitable.
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Hudson, R. Nurturing hope at the end of life. Ageing Int. 31, 241–252 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915232
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915232