Hospice nurse explains end-of-life 'death stare' and 'visioning' experiences

Australian Community Media

Popular youtuber and care worker Hospice Nurse Julie sheds light on common experiences at the end of life, including visioning and changes in perception.

Transcript

00:00 If you're not familiar with the end of life phenomena, there's a few things that happen at the end of life to most people.

00:05 And one of the things is called a death stare, which is when someone gets really fixated on a certain part of the room

00:12 and no matter what you do, you can snap your finger right in front of their face and they will not move their gaze.

00:17 Sometimes they just stare, sometimes they will talk to someone who you don't see,

00:21 sometimes they'll have a big smile on their face like they're seeing something that's obviously making them very happy.

00:27 So that's called the death stare.

00:29 The other thing I witnessed is called visioning. It's end of life visioning.

00:32 It's one of the main phenomenas that we see as healthcare workers at the end of life.

00:37 And this is when someone sees visually someone who has died already that they usually love and know,

00:44 whether that's their mom, their dad, uncle, an old friend, one of their pets even.

00:50 And they sometimes will have conversations right in front of us with these people that we don't see.

00:55 It's called end of life visioning.

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