[Joe NightingMale]

I'm starting a MSN program and I one of the specialities I'm considering is hospice.

I was wondering how people enter this field...I know that generally nurses gain experience in another area (like oncology) prior to entering the hospice field. I'm curious as to what other people's experience is.

Thanks

[new2hospiceRN]

I started in Home Health and was suckered in to it when there wasn't any other RN willing to help out. Ends up, I love it. I like it better than Home Health. I actually feel like I am making a difference in an end of life experience for the patient and the family. I like all the dynamics involved. I enjoy the autonomy. I am only there to help and I haven't come across anything other than greatfulness. That is not the case in Home Health. There are lots of wonderful things I come away with as well. Life and our time here is precious. Always let those you love know you love them. Dying isn' fun to watch, but we all will have to do it. Why not make it pain free and have our loved ones around us. The support is essential. Use the MSW, Chaplain, and Volunteers, otherwise it can be difficult.

[aimeee]

I shadowed a hospice nurse on one of my "specialty days" during nursing school. Then I had some exposure while working in long term care and it seemed a natural progression for me. I was a little worried about taking call and about case management so when a position came up in admissions work I thought that was something I could more easily transition to. I wasn't really actively looking, just happened to see the ad in the paper one day. I found myself reading it over and over again each day and finally decided to do something about it! That was 6 years ago and I've been here loving it ever since. I wouldn't want to work anywhere else!

[Wren]

In nursing school we had a presentation by a hospice nurse and I was fascinated by the job. I later arranged to spend a day shadowing her and knew it was the field for me. It took me awhile after graduation to get there even though I knew it was my ultimate goal. When I started in home care I asked for and received cross-training in hospice and transfered there once an opening was available.

I love hospice and think it is one of the most rewarding places you can work as a nurse. Ironically hospice is now NOT my primary job although I still do prn. I have asthma that has worsened over the years and I find it more difficult to control when I am in homes where patients/families are smoking. I did a 2 hr + admission one day where 4 or 5 people were smoking in the home and I almost had to go from the admission to the ED for treatment! I periodically consider going back to hospice as my primary job if I could arrange to only do hospital or facilities admissions (no smoking) or home care in nursing homes. I am still a member of the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association and keep up with the literature so who knows...maybe a future goal?

[Joe NightingMale]

Thanks---every bit of advice helps

[chris_at_lucas_RN]

I got a call out of the blue from a (failing) hospice that was desperate to hire.

I had no experience in the field and told them so. That didn't matter they said, just so I had an active license, no criminal history and a pulse.

I thought they were kidding, but these really were (and still are) their criteria for hiring.

I tried to quit after 5 days, got suckered into being the DON/PCC for seven months. After four months I gave them 90 days to straighten up their act. They did, for about five minutes.

But in the meantime I found I love hospice. I also found I am a good administrator, and it is an area where you can combine both without a lot of politics. Sometimes.

I am currently a traveler, making a very nice sum each week, have the option of insurance and other benefits (no PTO or anything, but heck, I can afford to take time off if I need to, and can flex my schedule).

I eventually want to be a nurse practitioner, and at that point I think I want to continue to be involved in hospice activities.

I did study up and pass the certification exam this spring. I'm pretty proud of that....

Hope you join us--if you are "called" you may very well find that this is where you are "called" to.

[Joe NightingMale]

Thanks! I think I am called to do hospice/palliative care... although I know very well that after clinicals I may find my calling in some other field. But I hope it's hospice.

[henrysmom]

I had worked a long time in SICU and loved it for most of that time. Then..I slowly started feeling that a lot of what we did was futile (I worked at the VA and most of the patients were quite elderly and might have been better served by hospice care.). Many times I would enter the unit at night to go to work and think "okay, who am I going to torture tonight before they die?" I just think that the way we treat most of our elderly at the end of their lives is horrible. Anyways, I was becoming more and more disenchanted with critical care and a good friend of mine started working in hospice. She called me and said "you need to do this, Kim, you are really a hospice nurse at heart). I was vaguely intrigued, as I always felt it was a particular honor to be with patients when they died. But it took me a few more years to get my hospice feet wet. A family member of mine died while on hospice and I was so impressed by the nurse who cared for her and the whole philospohy that I decided to give it a try. I love it! Every now and then I need to take a little break due to the emotional toll (I live in my service area and constantly drive by the houses of patients I've cared for), but always go back and imagine I will end my career in hospice..to me, I feel called to a life of service and hospice nursing is really all about love and service...