The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

Vlahos is then assigned to Sue, a grumpy patient who makes it clear she does not want a hospice nurse in her home. When Vlahos returns the next day, Sue asks Vlahos why she stays so long after she has done all the tests, and Vlahos answers that her company requires nurses to stay for a certain amount of time; since she’s a single mom, she can’t afford to make mistakes. While Vlahos is technically not supposed to share information about her personal life, she knows that it is the only way to connect with her patients, so she opens up when she deems it necessary. Sue asks Vlahos to spend the extra time watering her plants, bringing in the mail, and folding laundry. Remembering that the purpose of hospice is to provide patients comfort as they near the end of their lives, Vlahos is happy to do these tasks for Sue.

The next day Sue’s breathing is labored, and Vlahos relearns the vital lesson about hospice: The goal is comfort, not treatment, even though that philosophy goes against everything she learned in training. She recalls shadowing Theresa, a nurse in the emergency department, during nursing school.