A hospice nurse says the most common regret patients have on their deathbed isn’t working too much, or not seeing enough of the world.
Instead, American nurse Julie McFadden said she most commonly hears that the terminally ill wish they appreciated their good health when they had it.
Ms McFadden, who has seen ‘hundreds’ of patients in their final moments, told podcaster Rob Moore: ‘The main thing people say, that I don’t hear a lot of people mention, is “I wish I would have appreciated my health”.’
She added that many people take their health granted until it is too late and admitted she herself can also fall into this trap.
To help combat this she said she writes a ‘gratitude list’ every night to remind herself about the good fortune she enjoys by being healthy, Surrey Live reported.
‘I like the fact that I can breathe, I’m walking around, I can feel the sunshine – little things like that,’ she said.
Ms McFadden said that while death is a natural process and not to be feared, she was critical of health systems that don’t adequtely fund palliative care services.
‘Generally speaking it helps to have money to die well which I think is really unfortunate,’ she said.
American nurse Julie McFadden said the most common complaint dying people had was not appreciating their good health when they had it
Ms McFadden said that while death is a natural process and not to be feared she was critical of the system in the US which mean people who would be better off in a hospice often end up dying at home
The nurse, who worked for 16 years in intensive care and in hospices, added this can often lead to poorer families facing financial hardship as they balance working with caring for a dying loved one.
‘If you’re working class and you just make enough money to survive here, you don’t make enough money to stop working and take care of a dying loved one. So you have to pay someone to do that, and that’s really really expensive,’ she said.
‘Only people with pretty extreme wealth can do that, which I think is really unfortunate. So I don’t think money does make you happy, but it helps it certainly takes stress off of the situation.’
A hospice is specialised service that cares for patients whose illness has been diagnosed as terminal.
Some hospice services are run in specialist facilities while others care for patients in their own home through regular visits, depending on a patient’s needs and wishes.
Patients may enter hospice care upon their diagnosis or may go in and out of it at different times over the course of their terminal illness depending on the exact nature of their condition.
In the UK such services are free, funded by the NHS or charities, however there have been repeated warnings the sector is facing funding problems.
Just a few months ago hospice representative group Hospice UK warned the sector faced a £60million deficit.
