Want to get a hospice position - need advice

[NursingInChaos]

I am 7.5 months into my first nursing job on a Telemetry unit in a medium sized 39 bed floor. I have every intention of making it to a year if I have to but honestly this hospital is rough, staffing trouble, turning over floor managers like crazy, piss poor nursing happening all over. It is only because 80% of our patient population don't really need to be there that more nurses (and the doctors there) don't mess up and kill someone when they mess up. If these were really really sick people then there would be some serious state involvement from all the negative outcomes. Scary stuff.

Anyway, I grew up in a family of hospice nurses, going with my mom and grandma to visit patients and learning a ton before I even hit high school. I knew before I even applied to nursing school that I was going to end up in hospice nursing but really planned on getting 5 years in floor nursing first..... But now 7 months in I am not so sure.

Even if you took away the negative aspects of my job- working in a hospital is hard with my "hospice mindset" - it is so hard to see the patients that I know should be on hospice but instead are being admitted, getting peg tubes, Iv sticks, and all this treatment when they are obviously done - I feel like I am torturing patients some days you know? When I really want to just hold their hand and make them comfortable I have to do sternal rubs and new iv access :-(

Anyway, now I am trying to learn all I can while I try to make it to at least a year in this job- while eyeballing hospice jobs on Career sites- not yet applying- just looking- all around the florida area- Hollywood, Orlando, Wiki wachie, and st Augustine.

What type of hospice do you recommend for a new hospice nurse? Home visits or a hospice facility?? I am thinking a facility would be better to start in because of the support and resources of other faculty in the beginning.

Any tips on getting hired with just one year (or less) of experience? Thanks so much for any advice- sorry it is so long- just really needed to vent :-/

[nutella, MSN, RN]

If a hospice house hires you - why not.

But no matter in which setting you work - you need solid skills, know your meds, in home hospice you have to be really competent.

I am a little bit worried that your experience will not be enough.

[NursingInChaos]

I agree Nutella, I am thinking maybe instead I will maybe apply at a different med-surge/ tele job after my year is up here - just to learn even more, the more I think about it - I don't think I should be 'learning' on a patient in this most important part of their life- I know we learn everyday but I don't want a hospice patient to be my practice for anything. I know I will never know it all but I am CERTAIN that there is a lot more for me to learn about - and practicing on a med surge patient is much easier than a hospice one for me.

[HazelnutCream]

If you're not loving your unit or hospital nursing in general, I'd recommend a SNF as a great place to get experience relevant to working in hospice. Not as acute as inpatient, but you'll have lots of exposure to and opportunity to learn meds and interventions that you might do in hospice. Research the facility well and interview thoroughly (there are definitely SNFs that wouldn't be the best learning environment, too).

You will work with many hospice patients and may interact with many different hospice nurses or agencies that will help you know where you want to apply when the time comes. Good luck!