Hospice Nursing Could Be For You

One specialized field in which many nursing practitioners choose to work is that of hospice care

. Jobs in hospice care can be among the most emotionally demanding in the nursing industry, but they can also be among the most rewarding. The most challenging aspect of the job, according to many in the industry, is to work daily with patients who suffer from terminal illnesses. With patients regularly dying, the emotional toll can prove traumatic for some nurses. For almost all hospice care nurses, however, that emotional toll is counterbalanced by the opportunity to provide treatment and compassion to patients in the last months of their lives.

Hospice nursing most often occurs in a home environment, but can also include work in hospice centers. In either case, hospice nurses are charged with providing an array of services to their patients, ranging from standard physical care to more complex psychological and even spiritual care. Moreover, the impact of hospice nursing is not limited to the patients they treat, but extends to patients' families as well. In most situations, whether the patient is home-bound or in a physical hospice setting, nurses utilize a network of other health care providers, social workers, and religious clergy to provide the comprehensive care that patients require.

The main task in which hospice nurses are involved is the administration of the various pills and other medications that their patients need for relief from pain. While hospice nursing involves standard tasks like symptom monitoring and status assessment - as well as reporting to doctors, the fact is that the patients they care for are all going to die. As a result, traditional nursing goals of encouraging and assisting in recovery have to be set aside as the easing of the terminally ill patient's pain and suffering becomes the primary challenge. It is precisely because of this focus on pain treatment rather than recovery that hospice nursing is classified as palliative care.

To become a qualified hospice care nurse requires a degree as an RN (registered nurse), as well as receiving certification through your state's department of health. Prior to certification, you need to earn a bachelor's degree in nursing science. The formal training includes the standard classroom coursework, which consists of nursing, nutrition, physiology, and anatomy - as well as courses in psychology and behavioral science. There is also a national examination that must be passed prior to licensing prior to earning your RN degree. Afterwards, you will need experience in a hospice nursing environment for two years before you will be allowed to take the national certification exam for hospice nurses.

With salaries that are often slightly above the average home health care nursing professional, career opportunities for hospice nurses continue to grow in number and appeal to many nurses who feel drawn to caring for terminally ill patients. If you have the desire to share your compassion with those who are about to die from terminal illness, and help to ease their suffering in their final days of life, then a career in hospice nursing may be ideal for you.

by: Karen Williams

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