how often the volunteers work depends a lot, some come in for a couple of hours once a week and some many time in a week. The doctor comes in at certain times in the week to check up and prescribe medication. The role of the doctor is limited and they are not spending as much times with the patients as the nurses and assistant nurses.
The family The kindred are considered everyone who is close to the caretaker. Erika Lindqvist explains in an online course about kindred in Palliative Care, are an important corner stone in Hospice philosophy (Lindqqvist 2009). A comfortable kindred mean good support and is looked upon as one in the team and treated respectfully and including. There are visiting hours but these are very flexible and kindred can stay as they feel. For some kindred it is perfectly natural to be physically close and to some it is a huge amount of tension and the amount of time during a visit vary from patient to patient. At Axlagården they have a guest room that kindred traveling from other locations can stay in for as long as they like and they have tent beds that can be placed in the patients room. At Stockholms Sjukhem there is no guest room but tent beds are a common procedure. It is common that kindred have physical and psychological symptoms such as head ache, back pain, tiredness from the emotional tension and from sitting and guarding around the bed (ibid) (see fig. 2). The kindred often have many questions and thoughts and the information channels are very important. Accordingly to Lindqvist the informations should flow both verbally, written and be returning (ibid). At both Axlagården and Stockholms Sjukhem they have stands with folders and books related to the situation. Some of them are general information about grief and some are about how the body changes before death.
Fig. 2. Kindred sitting around the bed.
Stina Wessman 2011
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