Not everyone is cut out for hospice work.
The job requires the “courageous, challenging conversations” necessary to make important end-of-life choices.
That’s one lesson Reggie Bodnar has learned over the years as she’s worked as a hospice nurse and now as Gilchrist Hospice Care’s clinical director.
“The reality is the person is going to die. So, you pull out all the stops to make that patient comfortable and that’s when you know you’ve done good work,” she said.
Just as it applies to hospice nurses, Bodnar’s assessment also holds true for the myriad other roles involved in hospice care — physicians, social workers, chaplains, home health aides, administrative staff, bereavement counselors and volunteers.
Gilchrist’s roughly 250 staff members work with about 440 patients in Baltimore and surrounding counties. About a quarter of their patients reside in Howard County, she said.
Families and patients approach hospice with a varying degree of comfort and acceptance, she said, their reactions ranging from relief to anger.
Often, she sees a mental wall go up when the term “hospice” is first broached with a family. It means the caregivers’ goals for the patient have changed from “treatment and cure” to “care and comfort,” Bodnar said, adding that the mental hurdle is an anguishing one for many.
“I always tell people: ‘Feel free to make a liar out of the doctor,’” she said of the sensitive matter of talking with patients about life expectancy.
The hospice’s role is intended to go beyond managing medical care to finding ways to make the patient physically, spiritually and emotionally comfortable, Bodnar said.
The process of “getting their affairs in order” means much more than paperwork. It means making sure the patients have connected with the people they want to, and are in their desired environment and frame of mind.
To do this, Bodnar believes hospice workers must possess certain qualities, among them: exceptional assessment and clinical skills, and the belief that caring for people at the end of their lives is a privilege.
She also has come to believe that each hospice worker develops and relies on a personal belief system regarding death.
“If you’re going to do this kind of work, you’re really going to need to develop a firm faith belief system around death,” she said.
The job requires the “courageous, challenging conversations” necessary to make important end-of-life choices.
That’s one lesson Reggie Bodnar has learned over the years as she’s worked as a hospice nurse and now as Gilchrist Hospice Care’s clinical director.
“The reality is the person is going to die. So, you pull out all the stops to make that patient comfortable and that’s when you know you’ve done good work,” she said.
Just as it applies to hospice nurses, Bodnar’s assessment also holds true for the myriad other roles involved in hospice care — physicians, social workers, chaplains, home health aides, administrative staff, bereavement counselors and volunteers.
Gilchrist’s roughly 250 staff members work with about 440 patients in Baltimore and surrounding counties. About a quarter of their patients reside in Howard County, she said.
Families and patients approach hospice with a varying degree of comfort and acceptance, she said, their reactions ranging from relief to anger.
Often, she sees a mental wall go up when the term “hospice” is first broached with a family. It means the caregivers’ goals for the patient have changed from “treatment and cure” to “care and comfort,” Bodnar said, adding that the mental hurdle is an anguishing one for many.
“I always tell people: ‘Feel free to make a liar out of the doctor,’” she said of the sensitive matter of talking with patients about life expectancy.
The hospice’s role is intended to go beyond managing medical care to finding ways to make the patient physically, spiritually and emotionally comfortable, Bodnar said.
The process of “getting their affairs in order” means much more than paperwork. It means making sure the patients have connected with the people they want to, and are in their desired environment and frame of mind.
To do this, Bodnar believes hospice workers must possess certain qualities, among them: exceptional assessment and clinical skills, and the belief that caring for people at the end of their lives is a privilege.
She also has come to believe that each hospice worker develops and relies on a personal belief system regarding death.
“If you’re going to do this kind of work, you’re really going to need to develop a firm faith belief system around death,” she said.
user comments (1)
user hospicevolunteers says...
Great article. I wonder how many people realize that hospice is more than special people, the staff are actually "specialists". When seeing the family practice doc, a cardiac concern is referred immediately to a cardiologist. Why is it that an end of life issue is not referred to a specialist with the same intent of getting the best care for the situation? I started the first hospice volunteer training online program in order to advance the awareness of hospice services. Thank you for doing your part as well.
Posted 10:53 PM, 07.09.09 | Permalink
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