Thinking of leaving hospice

[NurseStephy80]

I love my job, I really do. But I am burned out. It's the on call hours. CM caseload of 12-15, call Fri @5- Mon @8 every 3rd weekend and 2 nights a week. My health has suffered and I am tired. This is my calling, I work with great people, but I have a family and I feel like I'm missing a lot. I'm sure I'm just venting. Is this the norm?

[knurse8]

I finally left hospice after 7 years. I never thought Id leave my perfect calling and still feel sad about abandoning pt/families and never using my hospice knowledge, talents and gifts ever again. Unfortunately there are a lot of Hospice companies that are in the business of "caring" to reap huge profits. Hiring staff is just the 'means to the end'. Add to the mix poor management, lack of support/training, and over worked staff as a recipe for failure. And while all areas of healthcare are overburdening nurses to the point of burn out, hospice has that added emotional component. What other job would you be driving home and get a call pt had bad fall, so you turn your car around go back to assess and treat, get home 2-3 hours late and still have charting to complete, then go to death pronouncement (because its you favorite pt and the on call nurse is busy w another death) . This specialty attracts nurses with compassionate hearts, but then bleeds them dry. Now I make a lot less money, but in exchange I'm taking better care of myself, sleep better (not being attached to my phone and turning it off at night!!!) While there things I don't miss like driving in traffic, bad corporate leaders/policies, office drama....I mostly walked away from the business of hospice. Hopefully I can return to end of life care as a volunteer or doula when I retire. Overall take away is positive, many pt's/family stories are forever etched in my memory and I'm so grateful for the experience and extraordinary life lessons.

[RN_SummerSeas, MSN, APRN, NP]

You should find a better company, those hours would burn out a lot of people, I wouldn't do it. Find a job with no call to minimal call and go there! You will find your sanity is saved!

[Grasshopper11]

The hospice I work for is Monday to Friday only for Case Managers with 4 weeks vacation. We have evening and weekend dedicated staffing.

[No12S, ADN, BSN, RN]

I left hospice after 8 years as a case manager. I was burned out also. I had a caseload of 12-15 patients, had to do about 3 days of on call per month, if the on call was on a wkend then it was 24hrs. I drove 175 miles one Saturday oncall and worked a 12 hour shift after I had worked mon- fri, management was lazy and would run the field nurses ragged, you would have your day planned, be asked to see other people's patients when you finally got caught up or do an admission, getting up at 1am to do an oncall visit, then being expected to come in the next day and see your regular patients. After 8 years, I had had enough. The best thing about hospice for me was flexible hours. I have never regretted leaving. Wish I Had done it sooner!