ABSTRACT
The basic function of a hospice, and they have been around for centuries in one form or another, is to support the dying patient and the family in the last part of the patient’s life and into a comfortable, non-threatening death. Doctors are taught that death is something they have got to fight with everything in their arsenal. People who choose to be nurses may have certain skills that enable them to do it more easily. Or they choose this profession because they think it is an area they can be the people they are. Physicians are essential to the communication process, but they are not acculturated or educated enough to be facilitators. Nurses no longer see the healthcare team as a triangle, with the doctor at the top and nurse at the bottom. The doctor does different things from what the nurse does and from what the physical therapist does, and from what the social worker does.
