Evaluating Chinese Hospice Care

Abstract

The hospice option for the terminally ill receives much praise, but there is little evaluation of whether it meets its goal of more humane care. Even though Hong Kong has been regarded as a death-denying society, hospices are present there. This study used narratives about the hospice experience by patients and nurses in a Hong Kong hospice to look at attitudes about end-of-life choices in Hong Kong and to assess the process of hospice care. Few patients chose hospice care. They simply acquiesced in their physicians' decisions to place them there. They described the hospice as a place to rest rather than a place to die. Their description of the care they received was highly laudatory, praising the friendliness, helpfulness, and compassion of the hospice staff.