End of Life Nutrition

When it's time to consider hospice, many people are concerned that it means "giving up" on their person. It has also often been wrongly assumed that nutrition care stops when hospice begins. We will discuss how those on hospice or at the end-of-life can benefit from nutrition interventions, as well as when those benefits are likely to stop, by focusing on the stages of the dying process. The goal of this session is to help you learn how best to advocate for your Residents/patients on hospice, and those at the end-of-life, from a nutrition standpoint. While the focus of this session is on the long-term care realm, practitioners in other practice areas who work with patients at the end of life are likely to find this presentation beneficial as well.

Objectives:

-Compare and contrast hospice/end-of-life nutrition with older adult nutrition

-Discuss the differing nutrition needs of Patients/Residents depending on their stage in the dying process

-Describe ethical concerns with hospice/end-of-life nutrition

Target audience: SNF, Hospice

Continuing education credits available: Nursing Home Administrator and Social Work

Presenter: Cassandra “Cassie” Whitmore, RD, LMNT  

Presented: March 26, 2026