If these were the only choices, would you prefer to spend your last days in a hospice or a nursing home?

Answer:
Hospice- hands down!
I am an ICU nurse. We refer patients to hospice frequently. The people who work there are so incredible. If you have %26lt; 1 year to live I HIGHLY recommend a hospice consult. They can treat you at home, in a hospice facility or even in the hospital. They are helpful even if you are still seeking treatments and therapies. They can really help in the area of pain relief and comfort. And they are really good with education and helping the families as well. I don't know why some families are so resistant to the idea of hospice, maybe they feel like they are giving up. They are the experts in comfort care though and I would want to have them involved if anyone in my family had a terminal illness.
Nursing homes... not a lot of good things to say from my perspective. Certainly not where I would want to spend my last days. They are notoriously understaffed. With the Real Nurse having so many patients they only have time to pass meds, so most of the patient care is done by someone making as little as $8 and has very little if any medical training. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are good ones out there and caring and wonderful RNs and patient techs and I know I shouldn't generalize but, when it comes to dying, hospice, hospice, hospice.

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I would hav to say.a hospice because they don't treat you very well in a nursing home.

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A hospice - they seem more cushy to me, and (I know this sounds weird) less hopeless. I guess it seems like they prepare you to move on to another world while nursing homes just hold you until you die.

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Hospice all the way, there r trained people who r skilled in helping a person accept death whether it be family or the one who is dying. Pain medication is given as needed, enough to keep the patient on a comfortable level until the end. There is knowledgeable staff always available to answer questions that family may have. Hospice is geared for the terminally ill or dying, nursing homes r not.

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