Hi, all. I know there are a couple of you hospice nurses out there.

I live in a rural area that is having a heck of a time getting nurses in any area, let alone hospice. For some reason the company I work for doesn't get that we can't take any more patients and give them adequate care. I have a caseload of 15, my fellow nurse has 13. We have a nurse quitting who has 11 patients. We are expected to handle call and admissions with little to no help from the main office in another city where the nurses there only deal with their case loads. The main office is 80 miles away and has a nurse who only handles admissions, and they have two on-call nurses who do only call. Our rural office represents about 35% of the company's total patient load in our area, but every time I point out that we cannot keep admitting patients in our neck of the woods, I get told that we have to admit everyone because if we don't, we won't get referrals any more. We are the only hospice in a 60 mile radius. I don't think we'll be lacking for patients, and quite frankly if another company came in to our small town at this point in time, it would be doing us a HUGE favor. I don't know if I'm venting or crying out for help or ideas.....but if you all have any, I'd be glad to hear them! I love hospice nursing. But dang it....are they all like this?
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