ABSTRACT
The word hospice was used in medieval times to refer to a place where travelers could find rest and shelter on their journey. Religious orders historically maintained hospices, offering care for the soul of the weary or ill. Hospice programs in their current form are designed to attend to the needs of a population that has often been isolated, ignored, or abandoned. Dame Cicely Saunders developed the present approach to care of the dying. In 1967, she founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in London, and to this day she remains a strong voice for the needs of dying persons and their families. The subject of death is particularly unpleasant for medical personnel. Health care professionals are taught to cure and often see death as a failure. Interested consumers from communities and health care professionals who were familiar with the inadequacies and limitations of the existing system collaborated to form an unusually powerful base for the evolution of hospice care.
