Need for Hospice Nurses Increasing

Need for Hospice Nurses Increasing

by | Nov 29, 2021 | Blog, Nursing Careers | 0 comments

November honors those who provide end-of-life care with National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Many nurses in this specialty say the work is emotionally and physically rigorous at times, but an incredibly gratifying area of nursing.

National Hospice and Palliative Care Month focuses attention on the caregivers who are able to help patients and their loved ones navigate the end of life with dignity, companionship, and as much comfort as possible. These nurses can practice in various settings–a healthcare facility, nursing home, or private home.

Nurses interested in this career path will find information and resources through Advancing Expert Care, the combined partnership of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Foundation.

The pace of the COIVD-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the caseload and the pace of hospice nursing. Because of their essential role in end-of-life care, hospice nurses work closely with patients to incorporate treatment of the whole patient. That means they might be prescribing medication, caring for various physical symptoms, and also acting as a knowledgeable source of medical information and comfort for patients and their loved ones. They assemble a care team that could include spiritual or religious members and will work with the patient’s care giving team to ensure that a patient is never alone in the final days and hours.

According to the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), 90 percent of Americans want to age in place at home, making the role of a hospice nurse essential for end-of-life care for these patients. For those who wish to age in place, healthcare delivery is especially important. Those who have a disability, are elderly, or have chronic health conditions will depend on home care workers and hospice and palliative care nurses as they come to the end of their lives. NAHC offers nurses opportunities to connect with legislators and advocate for home care and hospice care to remain at the front of patient rights and issues.

If you’re interested in this career, the need for nurses is high and increasing for many reasons. In addition to the impact of the pandemic, members of the large baby boomer generation are getting older, managing chronic health conditions, and often want to age in place. All of these factor are trickling down to a specialty hospice and palliative care nursing workforce that needs more nurses. The roles available in the field are broad. Nurses may have varying levels of direct patient care every day or they may have a managerial role where they are in charge of overseeing the network of care providers for a patient in hospice care.

Patients and loved ones look to hospice nurses to provide a calm and steady presence, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t supposed to cry when a patient dies. Nurses in these roles are deeply compassionate and in tune with their patients. But if you’re considering this career path, you will need to be comfortable with the process of dying and be able to cope with constant loss of patients. The benefits for helping patients navigate the end of life are deep and rewarding.

 

Job Shadowing: Get the Career Truth

Job Shadowing: Get the Career Truth

by | Oct 13, 2015 | Blog

One of the best ways to find out what a nurse’s day is really like is to shadow a nurse for the day. Whether you are a nursing student, a new nurse, or a nurse with many years of experience, job shadowing someone before you venture into a specific arm of nursing is a smart career move.

Kathy Quan, RN, BSN, PHN, author of The Everything New Nurse Book, and founder of The Nursing Site, says she thinks shadowing is particularly important for home health nurses and those considering something like hospice nursing.

“I loved the home health rotation in college,” says Quan. “You have that one-on-one with patients that you don’t get in the hospital. You can spend that time with the family and with the patient.” And although that one-on-one time is what Quan wanted to have, a more experienced nurse explained the reality of home health to her so she could understand the big picture and what the job really required. “She said, ‘If you want this for a Monday to Friday, 8 to 5 job, this probably shouldn’t be your primary goal.’”

Home health jobs, Quan learned, are really 24/7, because of the very relationship you build with the patient. If a patient needs you or has special needs that you don’t want to hand over to someone else, you need to be available, she says. You also need to be able to let some responsibility fall to a patient. “You have to have faith that they can do this,” Quan says. For instance, you have to trust they will take their medication and keep an eye on an IV if needed.

And, surprisingly, the amount of paperwork for home health is greater than it is in a hospital, says Quan. If that’s not something you think you could keep up with, it’s certainly good to know before you look for a job in the field. When you shadow someone for a day, whether as a home health nurse, in a hospital, or in the field, you’ll have a concrete understanding of what their tasks are.

Shadowing a nurse also gives you an incredible perspective that you would never get from a job interview process. For instance, if the paperwork seems endless at first, it helps to know how another nurse handles it. For Quan, seeing how the paperwork in home health care is built around the nursing process made it easier for her. “It is a lot, but after you get used to it, it’s old hat,” says Quan.

And hospice nurses use their nursing skills in a way that is different from something a nurse in a cardiac unit might do. There is an intimacy to discussing and helping with end-of-life care for patients. If you are considering hospice nursing, you would benefit greatly from shadowing a hospice nurse for a couple of days. By doing so, you can see how nurses engage with patients and families and use their nursing skills for comfort. You will be able to gauge if that’s something you could and would want to do full time.

The extra time spent job shadowing a nurse can help point you down the right career path.

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