Hospice questions

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 17, 2020

Education - Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association

eLearning Courses

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We offer over 50 online courses on a variety of topics, for both hospice and palliative nurses and members of the nursing team. Most of our courses are free to all HPNA members.

End-of-Life-Care (ELNEC) Online courses

Lots of advice in AN's https://allnurses.com/hospice-palliative-c16/ forum

Going out to pronounce during a storm/emergency based on your organizations policies, along with how prepared the family was for this transition.

I loved the time I spent in Hospice during it's infancy in early 80's --learned a ton. Best wishes in the career move.

vampiregirl, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2020

Welcome to hospice!

In addition to the resources recommended by NRSKarenRN, I recommend the AAHPM Palliative Primer; I use this resource daily! image.png.04d541c295a4b7c5c9bc248a58a2f156.png

HPNA Membership has also been invaluable. Depending where you live, there may be a local chapter as well.

As far as deaths during severe weather, your agency should have specific procedures. One thing to remember, a dead person isn't going to get any deader - there is no urgent patient symptom to address (I don't mean this disrespectfully, just to illustrate the importance of the hospice nurse driving safety to the destination). In my experience, family members get more frustrated when they are given inaccurate time estimates - if you are honest with them, typically they are reasonable. Customer service is so important immediately after a death. How a phone call is handled can make a huge difference. Some support can be done over the phone on the initial phone call. Under most circumstances (there are exceptions), taking a few minutes to allow them to process the death, reaffirm the quality of care the family provided, ask what the current concerns are, explain what the next steps are etc. I often inquire if they are waiting for other family members. If not, sometimes I confirm funeral home preference and ask family permission to give the funeral home a heads up or even arrange a tentative time. I've even had longer drives where I've pulled over to phone check the family (especially if a single family member is with the deceased) enroute or even contacted another hospice team member to provide some phone support while I'm enroute (if severe road conditions and I need to 100% focus on the roads). When I arrive, I always make sure I'm calm and collected. I don't mention if the drive was awful. This is about them and their needs.

Lilybug88 · Jul 27, 2021

Check out CAPC as well- Center for Advance Palliative Care. Hopefully your work can help sign you up if there are any fees. They have a wide variety of modules but the one that helped me starting out was the Onboarding Curriculum (about 18 modules). Hope this helps!

vampiregirl, BSN, RN · Jul 27, 2021

CAPC Courses are great!

Some of them are available at no cost or your organization may even have a membership that would allow you free access to additional courses!

toomuchbaloney · Nov 10, 2021

If you live in the snow belt or in a region with severe weather which might interrupt care it's best to include that in the poc. Discuss it briefly at the IDT. The family needs to know what to expect if it's not possible for the staff to travel conventionally or immediately.

Nurse.me94 · Mar 3, 2022

Hello, I am LVN, I would like some assistance on LVN scope in a hospice agency.

what are pre admit evals, tuck ins? IS RN supposed to do it. can I get into trouble with my license.

Thanks!

Guests · Mar 3, 2022

14 minutes ago, Nurse.me94 said:

Hello, I am LVN, I would like some assistance on LVN scope in a hospice agency.

what are pre admit evals, tuck ins? IS RN supposed to do it. can I get into trouble with my license.

Thanks!

Please check you state regs for hospice and palliative care.