Starting Anew in IL Inpatient Hospice

[PalmettoMomRN]

Hello Everyone! It has been awhile since I have perused the allnurses boards. Honestly at least 4 years or so when nursing school was coming to a close. I spent way too much time lurking! So I am back unfortunately with a new account as I was unable to access the old one. My questions are in bold, the rest is background and excitement!

I have moved from South Carolina to Illinois. I am very excited to have found a job in inpatient hospice with one of the best out there! I am wondering what a day in an inpatient hospice unit truly looks like. I did case management as well as strict on call doing 7 days on and 7 days off, with no back up, so I am no stranger to the stresses of the job as a whole. I am very excited to work for a company that believes in work life balance as that is something I have not yet accomplished in my hospice nursing career. I did also work at a rehab/ LTC type unit. However it catered to people that lived on premises in condos. I feel like I was spoiled for 4 months with that company. It was nice having the team work and support of others. I did not feel I had this In my previous hospice position but that was just the nature of the beast.

I am very excited to get back to what I love, and what I feel is my calling. Will be working on my certification as soon as I start as this company believes in that and will pay for me to get it.

I am also wondering about the nurse practice act for my new state. Should I print the entire thing out and pore over it? In school we touched on the important topics for my previous state. Illinois' looks like a jumble of law type words I feel is going to be quite overwhelming.

[knitnurse72]

I recently started in hospice as a case manager for a great hospice here in MA. As part of our orientation, we spent a few days shadowing at our hospice house and it was an amazing experience. Our house has 20 private rooms on 3 wings; there is one nurse and one aide assigned to each wing. The nurses gave lots of pain meds, helped with personal care, and provided A LOT of support to families. Overall, our hospice house is a very peaceful place and all of the nurses and aides I met there were amazing. I hope this helps a little bit - good luck in your new job!

[GRH909RN]

I too have recently moved from PA to Illinois. I was a home hospice case manager in PA. I just started my new job as an IPU RN in Chicago. I'm excited to work in the IPU and wonder how it will be different from the field. I too need to look up the Il practice act and wonder how it differs. Best of luck to you!