Been wanting to get into Hospice nursing for ages, and finally managed it. Don't want to say anything too early, but just finished my first week in orientation and I am loving it!
I enjoyed Home Health, but like this much better. May have something to do with not having to deal with OASIS forms. Although I hear they are on the way to hospice as well. Oh................please
Doing per diem at the moment, hoping and waiting to work my way into a part time position. Told I'll get plenty of hours for at least the next six months.
But just thought I'd let y'all know that I love my employer, I love my job, I love my co-workers, I love the patients and families I'm meeting,(sounds far too good to be true doesn't it, but it is.....at least so far) and I feel very blessed to be able to care for someone at this stage in their life's journey. I feel truly useful and like I've finally found my niche. I feel like I'm doing nursing in the truest sense of the word. :w00t:
I am so pleased for you, being happy at work is so important.
Ahhh.............thank you so much, Kay. Being happy in your work, or at least being able to live with it, makes all the difference in the world. Who'd have ever thunk digging out impactions would be O.K?
Runningirl, Oncology is a great place to learn - and you probably see patients that are dying so hopefully you have some docs on board that are good about keeping people comfortable. If your hospital has inpatient hospice contracts with any of the local hospices, you may see hospice workers come in to see these patients. If you do, see if you can get some of these patients on your assignment. That will give you the opportunity to spend some time with them and see what they are doing for the patients. Sometimes when we're are in the hospital with patients, the nurses ask us a lot of questions - like "why don't you want us to take O2 sats or blood sugars, why do you give this drug...?" It is an opportunity for us to do some teaching with the staff at the hospital. When you do make the change and come to work for hospice, you'll see a whole different way of taking care of patients. I would try to work in the hospital for about a year if you can stand it before making the change.
Ahhh.............thank you so much, Kay. Being happy in your work, or at least being able to live with it, makes all the difference in the world. Who'd have ever thunk digging out impactions would be O.K?
I know doesnt it make you feel great when you given that person relief.
Just an update.......heading into week four, orientation going great.
Adore my co-workers (think they're all trying out for sainthood - no gossip, no backstabbing, no negativity etc.) Everyone seems to be going out of their way to help me learn.
There is a sense of true fulfillment when I go home in the evening. Never experienced that before. And whatever I do for my patients, I receive far more from them.
Been wanting to get into Hospice nursing for ages, and finally managed it. Don't want to say anything too early, but just finished my first week in orientation and I am loving it!
I enjoyed Home Health, but like this much better. May have something to do with not having to deal with OASIS forms. Although I hear they are on the way to hospice as well. Oh................please
Doing per diem at the moment, hoping and waiting to work my way into a part time position. Told I'll get plenty of hours for at least the next six months.
But just thought I'd let y'all know that I love my employer, I love my job, I love my co-workers, I love the patients and families I'm meeting,(sounds far too good to be true doesn't it, but it is.....at least so far) and I feel very blessed to be able to care for someone at this stage in their life's journey. I feel truly useful and like I've finally found my niche. I feel like I'm doing nursing in the truest sense of the word. :w00t:
Thank goodness!!!!!
I thought I recognized a familiar face! J/K of course.... We have wound up in the same niche though, and it feels great.
I love being able to comfort and educate, to be present at the time of great transition, to help patients and families turn a desperate panicky time into one of love and (usually) reunion with each other.
Feels almost like a birth, in a way. We are the midwife. The family and friends are the laboring mother. The baby is the patient who is entering a new life.
I am mostly doing administration, which I am good at, and I do on-call and admissions, so I get some clinical, not as much as I'd like maybe, but some. And later when I get these centers straightened out, I'll do more clinical myself.
I thought I recognized a familiar face! J/K of course.... We have wound up in the same niche though, and it feels great.
I love being able to comfort and educate, to be present at the time of great transition, to help patients and families turn a desperate panicky time into one of love and (usually) reunion with each other.
Feels almost like a birth, in a way. We are the midwife. The family and friends are the laboring mother. The baby is the patient who is entering a new life.
I am mostly doing administration, which I am good at, and I do on-call and admissions, so I get some clinical, not as much as I'd like maybe, but some. And later when I get these centers straightened out, I'll do more clinical myself.
Wa! Chris, I had no idea you were doing hospice nursing as well!!
That's so neat. Glad to hear you like it as well. It must be the fact that it is so dang early in the morning, but ya know that old song, 'Another one bites the dust'? Well, it keeps playing in my head as 'Another one found her niche'. Like I say, I don't deal well with mornings. :rotfl: Gonna go take a shower and hope that song doesn't stick in my head all day. :monkeydance: :monkeydance: :monkeydance: :monkeydance:
put 93 miles on my truck today, but at least i didn't get lost once. which is a new experience!
still annoyed at myself cause i don't even come remotely close to knowing everything. sheesh, it drives me crazy when people say it'll take at least a year to feel fairly competent. i have no patience with myself.
a patient's husband hugged me today and said " i really want to say thank you to all of you in hospice. you are all life-savers - i couldn't deal with this without you guys." don't recall ever hearing that when i worked elsewhere.
yeah! i really am making a positive difference in someone's life. isn't that why we become nurses? :w00t: :w00t: feels good.
weetziebat
775 Posts
Ahhh.............thank you so much, Kay. Being happy in your work, or at least being able to live with it, makes all the difference in the world. Who'd have ever thunk digging out impactions would be O.K?