Hospice Nurses...please read my thread

I am so happy to have found this thread. I've been reading these boards for about a year now, and just officially decided to join in.

Mary...I could have written almost the same thing! Wow...When I worked in Med-Surg, I had a patient load of 10-14 patients. When I worked in a nursing home, it was 1 RN and 42 residents. I felt completely overwhelmed. I spent lots more time doing paperwork and giving out meds than I did assessing and caring for my patients. It was depressing. When I was working in the nursing home, I felt that my residents were not as safe as they should be with only 1 RN. I also had a very negative/bad experience when I almost worked in L&D. I never completed my orientation. During my 4th week of orientation, I was left alone in the triage area because the unit was short-staffed. I told my preceptor and nurse manager that I was very uncomfortable with this, and did not feel competent at this point. They said, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's just triage." Just like that. They displayed a very cavalier attitude about it, and seriously didn't care. I had never delivered a baby before, and had observed less than a handful of deliveries at that point. Well, a woman come into triage in active labor, 5th term pregnancy. I paged the resident who told me, with a terrible, sarcastic attitude, that she couldn't help because she was in a class. I paged her attending who never responded, and then I didn't even have time to page anyone else. I ran to get the emergency delivery kit, and God must have been watching over me...I saw an attending outside the locked unit. Had no idea who he was, but I ran to him, begged for help, practically crying I was so nervous. He ran in to help me, and baby was born less than a minute later. I resigned that night.

I worked hard to get my license, and I felt that it was in jeopardy sometimes. I left the workforce to stay home, and I had 3 children. Well...fast forward 10 years later. I am pursuing my BSN part time, and would like to go back to work per diem. Eventually, I would like to go back to work part time. I am seriously considering hospice, because I have always felt drawn to patients who were terminally ill for some reason. I am an extremely compassionate person, and I really feel that either hospice or some other LTC is my calling (provided the ratio isn't normally 1 nurse to 42 residents again!!)

I live in Central NJ. Do any of the seasoned hospice nurses out there have any advice or suggestions for me, as for how I should "get back into the groove?" I honestly lost some confidence before I left the workforce after those experiences, but I have put that all behind me now. I want to do what I was born to do, and that's to work as a nurse once again. I would really appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, advice, or comments. Thank you.


Nancy

Mary, thank you so very much for your reply, and your excellent advise. I appreciate it! I'm going to do exactly what you suggested!!


Nancy

I too am so glad I happened on this post today. The hospice nurses that cared for my dad 5 years ago when he passed are what have inspired me to go back to school to get my RN. I am almost 33 and I worked for 8 years as a medical coder. I spent most of my time chart auditing. It was always so interesting to me and I often found myself wanting to be on the front lines as opposed to behind the scenes. My family's experience with hospice was so amazing; it sealed the deal for me... I want to be a nurse! I've been a stay at home mom for about 3 years now and have slowly been working on getting all my prerequisites to apply to my local nursing program. I'm hoping to get accepted into the fall 2010 class.
Do you have any advice for soemone just starting out like me? I know that I will need some time in something like a Med Surg unit to get some experience...
And, how much does your own faith('s) play a role in your work?

Thank you all of you for the work that you do. Know that you touch lives in such an awesome way and make something that can be so very painful (physically and emotionally) and scary an amazing experience. It sounds weird to those who haven't been through it... but I rejoice being with my dad when he passed. It strengthened my own faith and I will treasure that memory forever. I believe I owe much of that to hospice. Thank you!
Lindsey

good luck 3babygirls!

You are correct that nursing experience outside of hospice will help you to become a confident and effective hospice nurse.