First job at Hospice Care

[ylezor]

Hello,

I am a new grad and I just got offered a job at a Hospice Care Agency. I was just wondering if anyone had experience in hospice. Should I take this job? If I gain experience here, will this help my resume in the future when trying to apply for an acute care position?

[FLArn]

Whether or not hospice experience will look good on your resume to an acute care setting will depend a lot on your hospice experience. If you work in an inpatient care setting and elaborate on the skill set you used there you might be hired for a med/surg spot. It will not do you much good getting a spot in ER, ICU, CCU etc. We are aggressive in comfort but not curative care. We typically do not use a lot of high tech equipment. What you will learn and be excellent at is assessing the patient based on information you gather with your own senses and not a machine, and you will learn to treat the patient not the "numbers" on a machine. You will not lose your clinical skills as some fear. We start IVs, place catheters, sink NG tubes (not for feedings but for gastric decompression), maintain Chest tubes and manage ventilators, BiPaps/CPaps among other things. In fact, most hospices prefer applicants to have at least a year of acute care or skilled LTC experience.