Hospice in LTC

Wren · Jun 30, 2003

Michelle,

I think you will find different Hospice organizations have different "rules" for assigning any patients whether they are in a LTC facility or at home.

The hospice that I worked pretty much assigned us geographically. I covered a certain area and any LTC in my area was covered by me. That said, there was a huge amount of flexibility and some nurses really liked going to nursing homes and others hated it. It was not uncommon for one nurse to take a week or more and cover all of the LTC patients (if the areas were close enough).

I have heard that other hospice agencies (probably the larger ones) have designated nurses who cover all of the LTC patients. But I think most places you'd have a mix of patient types.

Lengths of orientation or training too will vary by agency. Some will put you to work the next day with little or no training (not a good system!) and others will require a much longer and clearly defined orientation. Those are great questions for your job interview though.

Good luck! :nurse:

aimeee, BSN, RN · Jun 30, 2003

We used to have one nurse covering all the facilities for a particular team but our nursing home/assisted living census has grown to the point where that is no longer feasible. We still have all the patients in a particular facility assigned to one nurse. We normally make our assignments based primarily on geographical proximity but patient load and personal strengths/experience factor in as well.