Hey guys, I want to take you through what it’s like to be hospice or palliative care nurse. So first let me tell you that I did hospice nursing as a new nurse and I loved it, but there were some things that were very hard. So the first thing I’ll let you know is that you have to go into people’s houses and be okay with that. I did my hospice rotation was on a med search floor and I was tired of doing med search and I did not want to go into people’s houses, so I had to give up doing hospice nursing. So yes, you will go into people’s homes. It can be in their facility home where they are, or you could work in a unit that has hospice beds and then the obvious you’re dealing with death, but you need to consider this, is that gonna be okay for you.

You know, some nurses are awesome at it, they’re meant to do it, and then others that can only handle so much of it. So just keep that in mind. So some other pieces here, some skills. So you have to be really good at helping with pain management and kind of anticipating that the dying process can be very painful. And so these patients are given a lot of morphine typically, just sublingual given to them to help with that pain. Even if they don’t look to be in too much pain, sometimes it’s good to just to give it and anticipate that and take care of it instead of trying to fix it afterward. Then therapeutic communication. So a lot of times these patients, they’re gonna end up, you know, they’re comatose, they’re not able to talk, they’re just laying there pretty much asleep, but you are going to be dealing with the families a lot, so you need to be really good at communication and talking and just knowing that you don’t always have to respond sometimes just listening to them. I always felt like therapeutic communication was so difficult to master, but just being there and listening to them sometimes it’s all they need.

So a typical day. You are going to be visiting your assigned patients in their home or their facility. Or sometimes if they’re in the hospital, sometimes families have a difficult time when that gets closer, that they don’t want them to die at the house. They take them to a hospital or some place else. So wherever your patients are, you’re going to be busy visiting them. Or if you work on a medsurg floor then you’re gonna just be incorporating them into your normal day, seeing them, you’re going to manage their pain. So whatever they need. Like I said, a lot of times we’re doing morphine. Some might have a pump that’s helping to give them some extra medication depending on what’s going on. So you will be doing huge assessments, talking with the families and making sure that their pain control is, is okay, uh, accommodate wishes and needs. They’re dying so let them have what they want. If they’re awake and want to eat some ice cream and let them have some ice cream. We had a patient on the medsurg floor that I was on that really missed him dog and we snuck the little puppy dog up. Wasn’t a puppy, but it was this small dog up the back stairs and let that dog lay in the bed with that man that night and he loved it. So just to accommodate their wishes and needs, whatever you can do, support the family. So that’s huge. Uh, you have to be a huge support system. Just listen.

So some challenges you will a hundred percent get attached to these patients, um, and attached to the families. So that can be very challenging because they’re going to die and you will not be seeing this family all the time seeing as patient and that’s really difficult. I had some amazing patients that I will never forget and then you’re going to deal with death. So it’s inevitable. People think like, okay, I can do it. It gets to be really draining. I’m really draining. So just know that family disagreements, okay, so this happens a lot, right? They’re fighting over who’s getting the China, they’re fighting over money. Maybe one doesn’t think that hospice is what’s needed and another sibling does. Things like that. And when the stress level rises, these disagreements can really happen. And then, like I said before, just super draining. So just be prepared for that.

All right guys, to some key points, like you’ve heard me say it’s draining, but I will tell you it’s rewarding. I made amazing connections with these families and I would not give that up for anything. I hope you guys have a better understanding of what hospice, nursing and palliative nursing is all about.

We love you guys now go out and be your best selves today, and as always, happy nursing.