Ep.73 Navigating End-of-Life Care with Jennifer Levesque MSN-RN, BA, a Hospice Nurse

Caring for a loved one at the end of life requires a delicate balance of compassion, understanding, and support. As the person nears the end of their life, it's important to understand that the body undergoes changes, and recognizing the complexities of different interventions, particularly TPN feeding and IV fluids, is crucial. While your loved ones may be able to eat or get IV fluids, it's essential to understand that actively dying patients may find them discomforting and painful, and they can potentially impend the natural dying process. The main goal of end-of-life Hospice care is comfort and quality of life, and aligning your expectations with hospice goals is invaluable. Learning how to approach end-of-life care with empathy and understanding will help you embrace the inherent difficulty and beauty of the dying process with honor, dignity, and comfort.

Join the conversation with Jen as she shares more about end-of-life care, what to expect from hospice care, the inpatient unit, and food and feeding at the end of life. Jen is a compassionate hospice nurse, a communicable end-of-life disease management, and an association nurse and AIDs care member.

Tune in!

Key Highlights from the Episode;

[00:30] Episode intro and a quick bio of the guest, Jennifer Levesque MSN-RN, BA

[00:53] About Jen's background and career journey

[02:08] Inpatient unit, how it works, and when it's appropriate

[04:05] Rallying and how Jen provides a safe place for people to die

[07:34] How Jen got into nursing school and her calling into hospice

[13:30] IV hydration in the inpatient unit and what to expect

[16:48] Food, feeding, and TPN feeding at the end of life

[22:15] Tube feeding and when it should be stopped

[24:00] Choice in Dying and Jen's end-of-Life Experience with patients

[28:53] What Jen is up to and doing in her career

[32:42] Jen's passion for self-care and pediatric hospice

[36:42] Ending show and calls to action

Notable Quotes

● Sometimes, towards the end of their life, people get a sudden burst of energy, and they are able to communicate with their friends and family even when they have been actively dying. [05:59]

● Fluids can be used to resuscitate patients, but they are not healthy for actively dying patients; they can cause a lot of pain and impede the natural dying process. [16:08]

● When our bodies are pre-active or actively dying, the peristalsis in our stomach and small and large intestines starts to slow, and the food can be trapped in the body and cause a lot of pain; during the dying process, our body starts to reject food and fluids, and it's a natural consequence of death. [18:36]

● Dying is a natural part of life, and it's hard and beautiful; everything is wrapped together. [21:41]

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