Hospice uses a team approach. The team's medical members focus on pain control and physical comfort. Social workers help the patient and family deal with unfinished business among themselves and on practical matters such as finances and funeral arrangements. Chaplains and clergy address spiritual needs. The sense of defeat in the medical community when someone dies is foreign to hospice philosophy.
Death is seen as part of life.
The goal of hospice care is being helpful in negotiating death. I focus on two practical matters. First, to be with someone who is dying is an honor. Such help may be designed more to meet our own needs than the patient's. It's not that patients don't want someone to share personal faith with them.