First post- Hospice nurse

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 29, 2004

Welcome to All Nurses :)

webblarsk · Dec 30, 2004

Welcome! I am looking forward to reading your posts!

aimeee, BSN, RN · Dec 30, 2004

Pleased to meet you, Severina. Looking forward to your contributions. :)

l.dunn · Jan 4, 2005

hi, im a nurse in the uk who hopes to move to the usa in the future to practice. just wondering what extent the hospice movement has in the usa as a speciality. is it as "well paid" as other areas of nursing and who easy is it to get into??

aimeee, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2005

hi, im a nurse in the uk who hopes to move to the usa in the future to practice. just wondering what extent the hospice movement has in the usa as a speciality. is it as "well paid" as other areas of nursing and who easy is it to get into??

If you have the right skills and aptitude then you will have no trouble finding a position. The specialty area of hospice and palliative care is growing. There is huge potential for palliative care here. People are finally realizing that there is an enormous need for more palliative education and programs in this country. There is a big gap between the curative model and the hospice model of care that needs to be filled. Compensation varies from area to area greatly, but I am guessing that, in general, the financial rewards for hospice work are not as great as other specialty areas.

Puckster · Jan 5, 2005

Hello. I just registered with this site hoping to find a forum to discuss the specialty of hospice and palliative care nursing. I have been a hospice nurse at a 30 bed facility for a year now and often have questions to ask and antecdotes to share, so I hope this will be a lively place to be.
Severina

I am a hospice nurse down here in sunny Fl. Love to hear from you. It would be interesting to see how things are going around the country.

spaniel · Jan 5, 2005

I'm thinking of working only part-time if I enter an MSN program. I have not been away from the bedside and deal with death and dying very frequently in a couseling capacity. The last time I worked with IV's, high tech stuff is ten years ago- actually more. My main thrust at present, and for the past ten years has been psych. I wonder if there is a place in Hospice for me? I have worked many a day with the Hospice nurses, and their professinalism strikes me as quite high. Do you think it might be worth a try to consider Hospice nursing?

Severina · Jan 6, 2005

Hello again to everyone. To Spaniel: Wow, it seems that you may be ideally suited for hospice work. You already deal with death & dying in some capacity, so you 1.) have some understanding of what people go through. and 2.) psych stuff is very important to know. We run into psych issues daily for various reasons. An understanding of this is vital. Plus, hospice patients often take psych meds of various kinds, so you would be familiar with these, probably.

Not having a lot of technical skill at the bedside is usually OK. We most of the time don't use many high tech methods/treatments. I find that I use most general med/surg procedures. Plus, you'll find that hospice is a totally different thing than any other kind of nursing. There is so much to learn that isn't generally part of regular nursing curriculum or practice. I think that it is worth a try for you.

What helped me is working in a residence where I could be mentored and learn things since I didn't have a hospital background, instead of being on my own in homes, even though homecare was my thing before this. I guess though that residential facilities are quite uncommon though. Most hospice, I think is done in homes.

Good luck,

Severina

Severina · Jan 6, 2005

Also, OT, how do you get/upload your own avatar? I couldn't find a place on the CP to put one in.

Severina · Jan 6, 2005

hi, im a nurse in the uk who hopes to move to the usa in the future to practice. just wondering what extent the hospice movement has in the usa as a speciality. is it as "well paid" as other areas of nursing and who easy is it to get into??

I don't think that it is very hard to get into and is a growing field. As in other areas of nursing, there are so many staff shortages. Where I work we rely on nursing staffing agencies a lot, which is not good because hospice is such an art and specialty that the general nurse coming in can pass meds and such, but doesn't have the assessment skills. Lots of their patients wind up undermedicated, for sure.

As far as pay, I find that it is lower paid than other fields. I suppose if you could get into a palliative care unit in a hospital, you would get paid better, but where I work, is basically non- profit and always struggling financially and so I make a lot less and advance in pay more slowly than my contemporaries. But, this is where I belong, so I deal with it.

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN · Jan 12, 2005

Welcome to allnurses!!!!!!!!!!!!