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End of Life Care

Caring for the Dying Patient. Bereavement Issues. Video

Discusses the stages and ramifications of grief, mourning, and bereavement, and how a professional's interactions with patient and families can help or hurt. Effective communication strategies, appropriate closure, child and teenage conceptions of death, and personal issues of mortality also are examined.

All People Die. Audiocassette

Interview on the tomorrow show with Dr. Milton Hieftz and with Marjorie Berg, a woman dying of cancer who wants to die.

Dealing with Death and Dying. Video

Joy Ufema, RN, MS, thanatologist, discusses how to interact with the dying patient. This video is divided into three sections: Your Responsibility to Your Patient, Your Responsibility to the Family, and Your Responsibility to Yourself.

Dying. Video

The camera takes you into the lives of 4 persons who are dying of cancer. The situations are real not acted--(1) wife of Mark who had died at the time of the interview. (2) Sally who had brain cancer and her mother. (3) Harriet and Bill and their 2 children--Bill was dying. (4) Rev Bryant who had a tumor - shows his wife, family and congregation.

Gone From My Sight. The Dying Experience. Booklet.

14 page booklet by Barbara Karnes about the actual dying experience. She discusses the following periods: One to three months prior to death, One to two weeks prior to death, and one to two days to hours prior to death. 5 copies in English. 2 copies in Spanish.

On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying. Video

Videoconference which discusses how to train the public and professional health care workers in end-of-life care. Discusses community coalition building and engaging volunteers in a variety of programs. The conference is a precursor to a series of four PBS programs on dying to be broadcast in September 2000.

On Our Own Terms. Moyers on Dying. 4 Videos

Living With Dying. Program 1
Bill Moyers explores new ways of thinking about death. He focuses on patients and caregivers who are finding ways to overcome the fear and denial that dominate mainstream American culture.
A Different Kind of Care. Program 2
Presents the important strides being made in the area of palliative care in institutions such as New York's Mt Sinai Hospital and the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Leaders in this area emphasize pain management and the need for doctors to address a patient's psychological, emotional and spiritual well-being, as well as his or her physical condition.
A Death of One's Own. Progam 3
Dying well, to many, means a matter of control over choices to be made as we die. We fear dying in pain; we fear that too much will be done to keep us alive, or not enough. This program looks at the issues surrounding efforts to control the circumstances of our death and the implications for families, institutions, and communities.
A Time to Change. Program 4
Crusading individuals who offer palliative care to the working poor and the uninsured are followed. Through their work with terminally ill patients who otherwise would risk falling between the cracks of the U.S. healthcare system, these doctors and nurses are creating models for change.

Please Let Me Die. Video

A blind severely maimed burn patient talks of his wish to die. Graphic footage of the patient's burns is shown.

A Right to Die? The Dax Cowart Case. CD.

Dax is a badly burned patient who wants the right to die. This program provides an interactive environment in which to explore the Dax Cowart case and the ethical issues it raises.

Whose Life Is It Anyway? DVD

Join Mike Wallace for a penetrating look at right to die issue. Examine the landmark case of Karen Ann Quinlan, whose parents fought to remove her from life support after she lapsed into a coma induced by alcohol and tranquilizers. In interviews, ethicist Daniel Callahan of the Hastings Center of New York and Susan Mascitelli, head of patient advocacy for the New York Hospital, explore the ethical dilemmas raised when questioning who decides when and how life ends. And see how the media's coverage of the issue and portrayal of figures like Jack Kervorkian has affected a highly-charged debate.

Letting Go. A Hospice Journey. Video

Takes an intimate look at 3 patients--an eight-year-old boy with an incurable brain disease, a 46 year old woman with lung cancer, and a 62 year old man with an inoperable brain tumor. Shows how hospice care helps them cope with fear and pain in the final stages of their lives and prepares loved ones for their imminent loss.

Graceful Passages. The Hospice Journals. DVD

This program gives an inside look into the world of Hospice care as seen through the eyes of caregivers, patients and staff. The film was crreated by Jon Hand, an independent filmmaker who spent over two years with Hospice patients and their families in hospitals, homes, assisted living center and Hospice inpatient centers.

Common Heroes. Choices in Hospice Care. Video

This video follows the nurses, physicians, social workers and clergy who make up the hospice team. It demonstrates the ways they collaborate to help families maximize each patient's quality of life during the end stages of their illness, while also providing family support and grief counseling.

Hospice Austin. Video

This video was prepared to help you better understand what hospice care offers. It shows families who have been cared for by Hospice Austin, either at home, in a nursing home, or at Hospice Austin's Christopher House.

Suicide Tourists. 60 Minutes. Video & DVD

Tells the story of an 81-year-old German man named Ernst Aschmoneit, who is dying of Parkinson's disease. He travels to Switzerland where assisted suicide is legal and working with the medical establishment commits suicide. The video discusses the ethical implications.

Making Every Moment Count. Videocassette & DVD

This program addresses the complex issues surrounding end-of-life care for children. Psychologist and filmmaker Leora Kuttner, PhD, profiles five children with life threatening illnesses, and the families and health professionals who support them. The film shows that, despite popular belief, children can talk about end-of-life issues if given proper support and that doing so can help both them and their families cope with the realities of their situation.

The film focuses on the emotional and psychological aspects of pediatric palliative care. It features physicians, nurses, therapist and others working with families whose children range from newborns to teenagers. Their care takes place in the hospital, in hospice programs and at home.

End of Life Care for Children and Their Families. Ethical Dimensions. DVD

This program shows parents and nurses working with terminally ill children in the hospital or hospice. Parents speak of how they feel and how their child wants to be treated. Ways for nursres to create partnerships with families and supportive memories that will help the families go on with their lives are shown. Issues discussed include

shared decision making between parents children and health professionals
family centered care
withholding sustenance
bereavement
support for the family after death
nursing standard of care for the terminally ill child
ethics consultations

©1997. 40 min. WS 200 E56
Produced by Biomedical Video, Arlyn Bonfield, producer director; Esecutive Producer SCP Communications in NYC. Authors: Penelope Buschman Gemma, RN, Joy Penticuff, RN, Cindy Rushton, RN, Janet Will, RN; Consultant: Colleen Stanton RNC, MS, JD

Resources For When a Baby Dies. At A Loss For Words. Video

How to help those you care for in a miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn death. Teaches spouses, family members, friends, neighbors, and early caregivers like clergy , doctors, and nurses how to help and what to say and do.

Resources For When a Baby Dies. Footprints On Our Hearts. Video

How to cope after a miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn death. Offers ways to to cope with these feelings in the days and weeks of grieving that follow, as it speaks words of understanding, encouragment, and hope for the future.

Old Friends, New Friends. Video

The Center, located in Tiburon, California and started by Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, is shown and discussed by Fred Rogers. Children with catastrophic illnesses and their families meet here in groups to talk about their feelings that accompany life threatening sicknesses.

Growing Old in a New Age. Dying, Death and Bereavement. Video

Discusses the services older people need to deal with dying and death. Elders describe their views on widowhood and management of grief. Experts examine the ethical dilemmas posed by terminal illness.

Born Dying. Video

Presents the agony of a couple who suddenly find themselves the parents of a dying baby and the plight of the neonatal ICU nurse who must provide direct care for the baby until a treatment decision is made. Focuses on the issue of withholding life-saving treatment from seriously ill handicapped newborns.

End of Life Care: Ethical Dimensions. Video

Discusses the nurses role in end of life care. Two case studies are presented: the death of a child and the death of an elderly parent. Four criteria for evaluating the family's wishes are given. Some topics discussed are pain management, conflict resolution, communicating the patient's desires, and a definition of end of life. The tape ends with a brief dialogue between nurses on ethical issues.

Caring at the End of Life. Video

This tape focuses on the key roles of nursing staff in patient care and communication. It profiles six severely ill patients who agreed to be a part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's study of end-of-life care and decision making.

Their stories raise many of the key issues faced by patients and those who care for them, including the role of technology, deciding when to use or to withdraw life-sustaining treatments, the importance of effective pain management, and the impact of patients' culture and community on care decisions.

Caring at the End of Life. 45 min. Stanley 15 min. and Discussing Advance Directives. 15 min. DVD

Caring at the End of Life looks at key issues faced by patients and those who care for them, including when to use or withdraw life-sustaining treatment, effective pain management, and the impact of culture and religion on care decisions. Stanley combines sequences from the longer film to focus on the case of a comatose patient whose family and heealthcare team are in conflict over how long to continue the treatments that are keeping him alive. In Discussing Advance Directives, two nurses and a physician discuss difficulties they encounter in working with other staff and patients on advance directives.