Hospice care refers to the philosophy of care which attends to patients who are nearing death due to illness or natural causes. Once it becomes apparent to doctors that a patient’s illness has reached a stage where he is beyond cure or recovery, doctors advise hospice care in long beach the family of the patient to admit him in Hospice Care. In the last stages of a person’s life they are likely to be plagued by varied thoughts that are mostly regretful, depressive or fearful in nature. Naturally, no one wants to die, but death is after all an inevitable reality. Therefore, a special field of counseling and care called hospice care has been evolving since the early 11th century. It began in Europe but has slowly spread to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Africa, Australia and other countries. This field of counseling in hospice care caters to the emotional needs of those who are nearing the end of their life.
During the final stages of one’s life, when one is mentally aware of the fact that they will soon pass away, it is quite difficult to be in control of one’s thoughts and feelings. One of the most common feelings that is experienced by individuals is that of regret. Nurses of hospice care have reported that people’s dying thoughts are mostly about wishing they had spent their life differently. Some patients said that they would have been more happy embracing death if they had lived their life on their own terms as opposed to living a life that was dictated by societal pressures. Others stated that they wished they had not spent their life as a workaholic, but had instead been more conscious of staying connected with their friends and family. Yet another common regret of dying patients was that they wished they had been more expressive towards their loved ones over the course of their life.However, the most recurring wish expressed by patients in hospice care was that they wished they had spent their life being more content and grateful.