makeitwork

makeitwork BSN, RN

Hospice and palliative care

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All Content by makeitwork

  1. Best handbooks/textbooks/resources for a new Hospice Nurse?

    makeitwork replied to Possum_RN's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    When studying for my CHPN exam I used the HPNA Core Curriculum book (ISBN-13: 978-1-4652-7728-2). I felt this book filled so many knowledge gaps related to hospice for me and still feel all hospice...

  2. Hi looking for some home hospice nelp

    makeitwork replied to Jesse.jean's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    Prior to going into hospice, I simply browsed this category looking for topics that I wanted more information about on that particular day. I spent many days reading about this field of nursing...

  3. What Has Happened to Hospice?

    makeitwork replied to Tencat12's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I had a caseload of 20 only after we lost a couple of case managers to attrition and it was not for very long. In the past five years I have worked for two hospice agencies and both would do what...

  4. How do you reply to compliments about your profession?

    makeitwork replied to VulgarProphet's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I commonly say something like, "I feel this is where I am supposed to be" or "This was definitely a calling" or "You would be surprised how much good this job makes me feel by helping people at this...

  5. What would you do?

    makeitwork replied to BerryhappyRN's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    To me this is a bit of a no-brainer. Go to where you are being led. We have to define "taking a step back." I see this as you stepping forward to where your heart is leading you. Stepping up is...

  6. A "Thank You"

    makeitwork replied to motor_mouth's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I wish you all the best in your career! I hope the field that chooses you will be as rewarding as it has for

  7. A "Thank You"

    makeitwork replied to motor_mouth's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    You are welcome...it is an honor to care for our patients. I am sorry for the loss of your family member. The field of hospice can always use more good nurses. May I recommend you give it a little...

  8. Case Load Home Care

    makeitwork replied to ocdstacy's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I am in Washington State and have worked for two different hospice agencies. Each one tried to keep us at 12 cases or less, but, I have had as many as 20 for a very short time when we were...

  9. Get to shadow a hospice nurse, advice?

    makeitwork replied to skydancer7's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I am sorry I did not see your post sooner. How did the shadowing

  10. Palliative Standing Orders

    makeitwork replied to notanumber's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    What stands out for me is the fentanyl patch. If a patient is already taking one or more of the short-acting analgesics, a 24-hour morphine equivalent is calculated and then a fentanyl equianalgesic...

  11. HH or Home Hospice? Which one??

    makeitwork replied to mb55's topic in Home Health

    Over the last four-plus years in hospice I have met several co-workers that worked in the ICU. The common thread was that they were tired of seeing patients whose families would not let their loved on...

  12. How many visits per day? (Case Management)

    makeitwork replied to nurseontheway's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    "The majority of your visits will be 30-45 minutes." A short visit for me would be 45 minutes. We not only talk to the patient/family providing emotional support and education, but, we do the...

  13. Do you hospice nurses attend funerals of patients?

    makeitwork replied to Butterfly0328's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I rarely attend memorials or funerals of my patients. I need that separation/work-life balance. When I have attended, I try to sit or stand in the back and learn more about the patient's life--these...

  14. FAST scale in patients with dementia as hospice diagnosis

    makeitwork replied to elsbets's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I hope the nurse that charted is not the same one that documented the FAST of 7b. If so, and you see this often, it sounds like a training issue for this nurse and/or the nursing

  15. I did it! I finally found my niche.

    makeitwork replied to Clint1076's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    Way to go! Once some of the excitement levels out make sure you find work/life balance. I have found that I ended up getting to involved emotionally and my up and downs became very

  16. Average daily mileage

    makeitwork replied to Annintenn's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I work in a rural area and seem to average around 80 miles per day. A buddy of mine has a couple of patients in the far reaches of the county and easily doubles my average two days a week. If you...

  17. Do males ever get to work in hospice?

    makeitwork replied to northmississippi's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I have been a hospice nurse for over four years. At the last agency I worked for I was the only male RN Case Manager. Many times male patients are glad they have a male hospice nurse. To add to that,...

  18. On call?

    makeitwork replied to lifelearningrn's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    Our agency's on-call policy is very similar to Grumpy's with the exception that Grumpy has a nicer supervisor--if no one volunteers our supervisor puts our names into a bowl and starts

  19. Mouth sores caused by Roxinol

    makeitwork replied to CoffeeRTC's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    May I add that with 4-6 administrations of short-acting pain medicine you may want to considered a long-acting analgesic? By getting in front of the pain you can reduce the Roxanol administrations...

  20. Is hospice on the down swing?

    makeitwork replied to Nash3222's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    So true RK. I do case management and admissions. The biggest complaint we get is that families (or MD's, but, that's another topic) wait too long to get their loved one on service. If a...

  21. Newer Nurse trying to follow heart

    makeitwork replied to kota110's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I too, left another career to become an RN and got my BSN. I worked in LTC facilities for a year, interviewed for a hospice RN job, got it and now I am a supervisor. I think the single most...

  22. Revoking and Hospitalization

    makeitwork replied to Kabin's topic in Hospice, Palliative

    I have to ask if the pt called the on-call nurse prior to going to the hospital. If they did not call us first, we did not have the opportunity to provide crisis care and, therefore, the pt is...

  23. WGU RN-BSN 2/1/2012 start date, anyone with me?

    makeitwork replied to labornurse3's topic in Western Governors University

    I live in WA state and took several of my prereqs online through the community college system--including chemistry. Perhaps where you live there are cc classes you can take online, which I find...

  24. South Puget Sound VS Centralia Nursing Programs

    makeitwork replied to hannahjean5's topic in Washington Nursing

    Just_cause is correct. However, what happened is that we went to the hybrid class every other week for an hour or two and that still gave me plenty of time to also go to work. You can certainly...

  25. Does Excelsior College work in the state of Washington

    makeitwork replied to mdhopkins1's topic in Washington Nursing

    You need to check with the state nursing quality assurance board (Dept. of Health). There is a list of approved colleges and Excelsior is not on it. If your heart is on Excelsior, go to a state that...