The chaplain that works at the House told me when I started that he can always tell when patients are brought up under a works based or faith based belief system. I started paying attention to this myself, and noticed the trend. Often when patients think that what happens to them after they breathe their last breath is based on what they've DONE in life, hey start getting nervous. They question if it was enough, they have bad dreams, they get agitated when awake and often fight dying right to the last moment. It's hard to feel secure if the only thing that counts was your actions in life. In contrast, those who believe they are loved despite what they've done are always calm. They sleep peacefully, spend time sharing memories instead of questioning the past, and they die gently. It seems oversimplified, but the pattern is present everyday that I work.
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