HMONG ELDERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF AND EXPERIENCE WITH HOSPICE CARE

摘要

Since arriving in the US, the Hmong community has sought to integrate its beliefs and rituals into the healthcare services they receive at end-of-life. Despite being in this country for over 40 years, only two studies have been conducted on this topic: one study seeking understanding of the Hmong’s end-of-life beliefs and rituals (Her-Xiong & Schroepfer, under review) and another providing evidence that those beliefs and rituals were not honored and resulted in a Hmong elder’s poor quality dying process (Culhane-Pera, 2003). The purpose of this study was to garner an understanding of Hmong elders’ knowledge of and experience with hospice care. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 Hmong elders, and conventional content analysis was used to identify themes. Findings revealed that over half of the respondents knew a little about hospice care from their experience with a family member who had used this service. They reported that these experiences raised concerns regarding their potential use of hospice care such as limited understanding of this care, communication and language challenges, and hospice care providers’ lack of understanding of Hmong culture. Respondents felt that education about hospice care and providers being open to Hmong beliefs and rituals might result in their use of these services. Findings have implications for hospice care agencies to outreach to the Hmong communities with the goal of educating and collaborating on the provision of culturally sensitive end-of-life care.