Chedmonds

If it's not after-hours and something like that happens, I generally step out and call the office and see if there's anyone available to do the pronouncement. Luckily, my manager will generally take care of that type of PRN visit if we are tied up and can't make it out. If it is an after-hours situation and I'm on call, I will call our back-up on call person who is usually a CNA to go and sit with the family and perform PM care before I can make it out there, that way there is someone to support the family at least. Sometimes our Social a worker or Chaplain will go out in the meantime while the nurse is tied up as well. My office is particularly helpful in dispatching people when PRN visits like that pop up, but if it's an After Hours situation it can get pretty stressful! You'll get the hang of how to manage it!

I came from a LTC facility and jumped into Hospice with no problems. It's definitely never bad to have patient care experience, as we encounter many different things like trachs, drains, tubes, etc. but overall you definitely don't need CCU experience. It's such a shift in mindset from "Let's get in there and fix it!" to "Let's treat the symptoms and keep them comfortable!" that it might actually be beneficial to not have critical care experience IMO. Regardless, just like any job you will learn and be trained on the job, so as long as you're willing to learn you will be fine. I agree with the last post, if you have the heart for it then do it! Hospice is such a wonderful and fulfilling realm of nursing and I can't imagine doing anything else!

We always attend the death regardless. In the facilities we work with most often, the facility nurses don't call the funeral home, they wait until we get there and let us handle that as well.

I work as a Hospice nurse,and while certain aspects of the job are terrible, the feeling that I get when I know I'm helping a family or a patient through a hard time is what keeps me going. I was on call on Thanksgiving and had to leave my family gathering to respond to a "he's not waking up..." call, which I always dread. It was one of my favorite patients, and though I would much rather have been eating with my family instead of waiting on a funeral home, the patient's spouse cried and said how she was so glad I was on call that day because she needed me there. I was mentioned in the obituary, and I know without a doubt that I made someone's worst day a little more bearable. That's what keeps me going.