Hospice Care of the Cancer Pain Patient

Abstract

To begin this chapter, we should note that a major problem confronting modern medicine is the need to educate some physicians and nurses. These physicians and nurses must learn that there is a time to forget cure and to be concerned with care. To everything there is a season, and there comes a time when hospital heroics, such as dramatic surgical interventions and continuation of life support systems, make no sense. As hospice expert Sister Harriet Copperman says, “There comes a time when we should ask ourselves, ‘In fact, what’s wrong with dying?’ ”