This paper deals with health services provided by the hospitals and nursing and care centers, to the patients who are suffering from diseases which are not usually curable. The paper raises some points that the hospital CEO’s can do to make such incurable diseases less painful, as well as help the patients in living the rest of their numbered days of life in peace and as much happiness as possible. The paper takes into account a movie named “The bucket List”, which deals with such an incurable disease. It shows how the protagonists try to live as happily as possible and do all that they ad ever wanted to do in their lives.
The movie “The Bucket List” shows two men, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, from different walks of life, who suffer from cancer and are brought for tests and are admitted in the same hospital. They become friends while living there. Both have little time left, as told to them by the hospital authorities. So, they make a list of all the things they had always wanted to do in their lives, and had never got an opportunity to do so. They call that list, a bucket list. To make their last days of life more meaningful and probably less painful than expected, both the men set out to carry out their to-do tasks. At some point of time, their lives intersect at a point and they tend to help each other achieve the other’s desire or wish. Their lists include some of the following tasks:
- Witness something truly majestic
- Help a complete stranger for a common good
- Laugh till I cry
- Drive a Shelby Mustang
- Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world
- Get a tattoo
- Skydiving
- See the pyramids
- Get back in touch
- See Rome
Now, to get all these desires fulfilled and all the wishes come true, there has to be a source, which must get this done. It may be the patient’s family, or the hospital itself, or even the government. Whatever the source may be, the aim is to make the patient’s life as smooth and happy as possible. As asked in the paper, what is the role of the CEO’s of the hospital? The CEO’s of the hospital must take a step to alleviate the pain of the patients who are in such a condition.
They must advice them to pray regularly. Besides that, the patients must be given full opportunity to do what they always wanted to do in their lives, so that, they don’t have any regrets. Their families must also be completely supportive in making the patients realize their dreams and fancies. The most important thing is that they should not be continuously reminded of their disease. Besides, as long as they are living in the hospital, the staff must make it sure that such patients are provided with, as much as possible, all the things they desire. For example, they can be provided with video games, movies, their favorite books from a library, magazines, and the like.
The question now arises as to who should pay for all the above expenditures? One answer can be the patient’s family. In case where the family is not well off, then the government must step forward to help such patients, since, they were once citizens of its country. It is the government’s duty to make their lives beautiful, when they just have a few days or months to live.
The most important thing is to provide them with care and support. They need everybody’s love and guidance. They must be given proper treatment. Their lives should be made as smooth as possible. Death bites. But dying while healthy, rich and free enough to drink life to the last drop is getting great press, thanks to a new movie (Cathy Lynn Grossman and Laura Bly, USA Today).
References
Cathy Lynn Grossman, Laura Bly. (2008). Making a ‘bucket list’ before you kick. Web.