Feeling Drawn to Palliative and EOL Care

[JimmyDurham9]

I recently took a continuing education train the trainer course on Palliative and Hospice nursing because I felt drawn to it after watching my grandfather succumb to lung cancer over the past two years.

The program left me wanting more in terms of promoting and speaking for palliative and hospice care. I feel like palliative care is far too under utilized. My main focus of practice has been primary care, perioperative, and labor and delivery (which I get jokes about going from the cradle to the grave), but I'm looking to try to integrate palliative nursing into my wheelhouse maybe at first as a hospice volunteer. Knowing only what I know from books and classrooms and one extremely biased personal experience doesn't seem like enough to make a complete career switch. But I still feel drawn to helping people have the best death they can...almost like an ache to comfort them in their last moments. Does that sound crazy?

[QuiltDog]

It does not sound crazy at all! We have all taken different paths into hospice nursing, but I think we stay because of the work. I came into it with 9 years of oncology experience (with a little palliative care thrown in) but was a home care newbie. I think a good start is to volunteer for a local hospice; this will give you an idea of the work involved. Good luck on your journey!

[Always_Learning, BSN, RN]

If you work in labor and delivery, you might also consider getting some additional training on perinatal loss. There is some great information out there on grief, loss, and palliative care specific to many different areas (critical care, L&D, oncology, etc.). Best wishes!