gsu8696

Renee, You have plenty of time to decide what trek you want to take. Give yourself a break...focus on getting your BSN. Once you've done that, you'll figure out what to do next. I followed the CNS path and got mine in Rural and Community Health...it was the perfect choice for me. I'm now going back to work on my DNP. You have lots of time. Don't pressure yourself with your long term goals or you'll risk losing sight of your short term goals.

I'm currently a hospice nurse. I graduated nursing school May 2007. I've been a hospice RN since June. I LOVE my job!! I can't tell you how many times I've heard "You're too young to be a nurse," or "I can't believe you're doing hospice nursing, you're not a seasoned nurse yet." "Hospice nursing is for older RNs." I believe all these statements are false! I maybe young *(I'm 21 years old) and I may have only had one year acute care experience, but I dont believe that ultimately effects the care I give. All of my patients are so thankful to see me, and anything they need I take care of immediately (whether it be medication supplies, etc)! People ask me how I can do hospice and deal with death and dying everyday, but in reality it doesn't effect me like people think it would. When I was in an acute care setting, I saw the same patients come in and out, in and out and suffer through procedure, after surgery, after procedure. Many of these patients are terminal. What kind of quality of life is there when you spend your last few months in the hospital or even worse, dying on the table during a hopeless procedure?? The patients I have enjoy everyday of their last few weeks or months with their loved ones and doing different activities. It's such a privledge to be a part of their life before God decides to take them to a better place. :redbeathe I have been a nurse for almost 20 years...17 of those years are in hospice. I started as a home hospice nurse and have spent most (15) of my years in hospice administration. I have always, always made sure that the care of the patient and family are the center of my decisions and the care we provide. Over the past years, I have hired and lost many nurses and in the process learned alot about turnover. One of the "rules" in general is to make sure a nurse has at least a year of med surg or ICU nursing prior to hiring into hospice. There are many reasons for this. I don't think anyone would ever question a nurse's dedication to patient care or their desire to want to "be" a certain type of nurse. Hospice, like ICU, obstetrics, and ER, is a very specialized area of care. It has been my experience that for a nurse to succeed they need a minimal amount of experience in various areas of nursing. Hospice nurses are performing care in patients' homes...they have to have excellent assessment skills. The nurse must be comfortable and experienced in making on the spot decisions regarding patient care. In hospice we utilize medications for symptoms that are not traditionally used for some symptoms...therefore nurses have to be able to assess symptom needs, understand how those medications are used and why as well as their mechanisms, etc. The hospice nurse must understand the dying process, nearing death awareness and how to assess for those signs and symptoms. The hospice nurse must take all of the aspects of hospice care (including the regulations and how they work in caring for the patient) and be able to educate the patient and family with confidence in all aspects of palliative care. Even more importantly, the hospice nurse has to know how to effectively integrate all of these aspects of care in order to provide the highest quality end of life care possible to the patient and family. Most likely when people are saying you are too young, it has more to do with your lack of life experience than it does with your nursing experience. Most young nurses have not had a ton of experience with life and death in general...not to mention so many other psychosocial issues that come into play when you are dealing with, not so much the hospice patient, but with the patient's families. So much of what we do is based off of life experience, and that is something you cannot be taught through a textbook or through a powerpoint presentation. I'm not saying that a young nurse cannot be successful in hospice. What I'm saying is that the young nurse needs exceptional orientation, education, and continued oversight in order to succeed. Nurses don't know what they do not know. I'm sure you believe that you do know how to be a hospice nurse. Would you walk into the L&D unit thinking you could deliver a baby? Or would you think you could walk onto the ICU and think you could take care of a patient with multiple monitors and tubes without ever having been there? A lot of hospice nursing is innate. I believe there are qualities of hospice nurses that cannot be taught...I also believe that this is the reason for much of the turnover. I wish there were more enthusiastic young nurses like you that desired to become hospice nurses. What I'm trying to say to you is please be open to continuing to learn. It takes at least two years to mold a well-rounded, experienced hospice nurse...and even then if someone does not possess those innate qualities their probabilities of success are probably going to intervene with their ability to succeed at some point. After 17 years in hospice nursing, there is never a day that goes by that I don't learn something new...and so much of that has been from the patients and families with which I have had contact. I don't believe anyone questions whether you love your job or whether you provide your patients with what you "think" it is they need. But there are needs a patient may have that you may not have experience in dealing with, or needs that maybe you have not been trained to manage or assess...like I said, one does not know what they do not know...most of the time that comes with experience, many times the life experience that you and others may not have yet. The next two years of your hospice career will tell you alot...I wish you the very best...it is one of the most rewarding and outstanding area of nursing that exists. I want you and all of the other young nurses in our professional field to succeed (I am currently mentoring a very young nurse myself). We need all of the great nurses (of all ages) that we can get in hospice nursing. More than that, I hope with all of my heart that you have an experienced, dedicated, knowledgeable nursing supervisor that understands and identifies the special needs of the young hospice nurse. I hope this person also understands that hospice nurses need to be nurtured and cared for as well. For it will be that person who is most responsible for the success or failure of anyone that desires to be a great hospice nurse. :wink2: