OLDER AMERICANS MONTH
It is a bit of a struggle for me to delineate the years that comprise those who qualify as “Older Americans” because doing so means that I have to face the fact that I am one. My parents survived the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and World War II.
BENZODIAZEPINES IN HOSPICE
When ORAL benzodiazepines exceed either the maximum daily dose or dosing frequency for symptoms of anxiety, aggression, and/or agitation, it can cause a paradoxical reaction.
PDC RX PAYS TRIBUTE TO DAME CICELY SAUNDERS
n celebration of International Women’s Day, PDC Rx would like to honor Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of today’s version of hospice and palliative care for the terminally ill. Dr. Saunders was a London physician who began her work with the terminally ill in 1947. In 1957, she earned her medical degree, and in 1967 she founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in south west London.
WHO IS JAYMIE DEAL WILSON, MSN, APRN-CNP, ACHPN?
Jaymie Wilson knew from a very early age that she wanted to be a health care provider.
Hospice Highlights – Cedar Valley Hospice
Cedar Valley Hospice
At PDC Rx, we genuinely consider it an honor to work with some outstanding hospice organizations. For this month’s Hospice Highlight, we are proud to feature Cedar Valley Hospice in Waterloo, Iowa. Their mission is to enrich lives with knowledge, respect, and compassionate care.
HELP WANTED: POST HOLIDAY HOPE
The Holiday season has ended, and the magic is no longer in the air. Many of us may be experiencing a sort of emotional whiplash. As quickly as the Holidays stopped, reality began again. We now face the difficult task of maneuvering through this life while resuming to some normalcy. Evidently, I am not a big fan of normalcy or reality.
SHOULD WE CONSIDER METHADONE THERAPY FOR PAIN MANAGEMENT?
n recent years, health care professionals have been reluctant to prescribe methadone as a means of pain management. For many reasons, methadone has sort of a stigma attached to it because it is often used as a treatment for addiction.
STAVING OFF THE EFFECTS OF DEMENTIA
Eat healthily. Live healthily. Be healthy. How many times a day are we bombarded by that message? I believe I’ve heard it so often that I’ve become deaf to it. It just seems like rhetoric that’s easily ignored because it makes so much sense. It has become sort of a “duh” kind of message.
MOTHER’S PASSING
We never thought my mother would die… We just never thought about it – never prepared for it or asked her about her end of life requests.
DELIRIUM IN HOSPICE
Delirium is defined as an acute state of confusion, characterized by an inability to focus, maintain wakefulness, and/or attention. The presence of delirium leads to an increase in mortality and morbidity, misdiagnoses (particularly for dementia and/or depression), increased length of inpatient stay, and increase in symptom burden – which precipitates an increase in patient’s medication regimen.