This article examines the role private home care providers can assume as they work alongside hospice professionals and volunteers caring for dying patients and assisting with the development and implementation of a plan of care for that process. It includes what home care workers need to know about the hospice role in caring for patients, how the two are different, and how to best communicate for the benefit of the client and family. The article will summarize how the two types of care providers—private providers and hospice staff and volunteers—can best support each other in providing a compassionate and professional environment for people coping with terminal illness.
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