🎥 Video 2A Transcript: Hospice 101: The Team, The Settings, The Goals
Hi, I am Haley, a Christian Leaders Institute presenter.

Hospice can feel unfamiliar at first—especially if your background is church ministry, counseling, or hospital visitation. But the big idea is simple: hospice is team-based care for someone nearing the end of life, with a focus on comfort, dignity, and support for the whole embodied soul.

Hospice is not “doing nothing.” Hospice is doing the right things at the right time.

1) What hospice is trying to accomplish

Hospice care is designed to support:

  • Comfort (relief of pain and distressing symptoms through the clinical team)

  • Quality of life (supporting what matters most in the person’s remaining time)

  • Dignity (honoring personhood, story, relationships, and spiritual needs)

  • Family support (caregiver support and grief care)

As a chaplain, you serve the spiritual and relational side of this mission—without stepping into medical or legal decisions.

2) Who is on the hospice team

Most agencies use an interdisciplinary team, often including:

  • RN Case Manager (coordinates the plan of care)

  • Physician/Medical Director (medical oversight)

  • Social Worker (resources, planning, family stress support)

  • Chaplain/Spiritual Care (consent-based spiritual care and meaning support)

  • Home Health Aide (personal care help)

  • Volunteers (companionship, respite, practical help)

  • Bereavement Care (grief follow-up support)

Your credibility grows when you understand how the team works and you communicate in a way that supports the plan of care.

3) Where hospice happens

Hospice care can take place in:

  • Home hospice (private residences and family homes)

  • Nursing facilities (long-term care and memory care)

  • Hospitals (short-term inpatient care when needed)

  • Inpatient hospice units (more intensive comfort support)

Your approach changes by setting. The environment affects privacy, time, family presence, and policy boundaries.

4) How palliative care relates

You may hear “palliative care” used alongside hospice. In plain terms:

  • Palliative care focuses on comfort and support at any stage of serious illness.

  • Hospice is typically palliative care focused on end-of-life, using the hospice agency model.

You do not need to be an expert in medical eligibility. You do need to understand the shared goal: comfort with dignity.

What Not to Do

  • Do not give medical advice, prognoses, or medication opinions.

  • Do not override the plan of care or “coach” families against the team.

  • Do not speak as if hospice means “giving up” or “no hope.”

  • Do not treat spiritual care as the only “real care.”

You are a steward of trust in a high-responsibility environment. Your calm clarity helps the patient, the family, and the team work together.

“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”
—1 Corinthians 4:2 (WEB)


Last modified: Monday, February 23, 2026, 3:10 PM