Solidarity in Mortal Time

Abstract

The concept of mortal time is useful in exploring what the hospice care framework might offer nonhospice clinicians. While hospice patients seem distinct from those in other settings, life-threatening serious illness brings with it profound vulnerability that permeates the atmosphere of caregiving. Hospice clinicians lean into this vulnerability, seeking to make meaning for patients and families in the critical present. Clinicians elsewhere can strive to overcome it, working to save themselves and their patients for a rosier future. Mortal time signals the shared human condition, however, and, as such, it can be an entry point for solidarity among patients and coworkers, strengthening both.