Hospice Nursing
Hospice means to reduce the severity of the disease symptoms in the suffering patients who have been incurably ill. Disease symptoms may include social, physical, emotional, spiritual problems as well. Hospice nursing is a tough, challenging job which needs immense potential, great compassion and ability to work hard. This job is taken up by many people in the nursing profession.
Hospice nursing includes activities and duties like observing the patient’s condition, recording the observations, assessing the patient’s state, working closely with fellow physicians, reporting to other physicians if necessary, supporting the patients’ families and giving emotional, physical strength to the patients, prescribing medication, checking the dosage and other traditional nursing duties. The main strength of the hospice nurses is to work with the patients who have been terminally ill and they should be ready to see patients die infront of their eyes. The duties of hospice nurses are not just the activities of helping the patient get better but also to keep them happy for remaining days of their lives and make sure they are comfortable.
Hospice nursing is mostly done in hospice care centers and also sometimes in the homes of the patients. The nurses should be able to give support to the entire family of the patients and support the patients physiologically, spiritually and socially. Wherever the work is carried on or the treatment is given, the nurses should make sure that the patient is comfortable and is recovering soon because patient’s comfort and happiness makes his/ her family also happy and satisfied. Timely medicines, syrups, vaccines must be given and administered in a timely fashion. Though the patient under the treatment is not going to live for a long time and is ultimately going to die soon, the hospice nurse must make sure the patient does not feel he/she is going to die and they should be made as happy as possible. Regular checkups and reporting to the doctor must be done which may lead the patient to think that he/she is normal. The patient’s dietary habits are also checked by the hospice nurses. Hospice nurses should console the patient and make him feel better rather than giving them a false idea of recovering soon and getting back to normal conditions.
Hence, the job of hospice nurses is tough and considered very challenging and it is one of the most difficult tasks in all fields of nursing. Usually, hospice nurses alleviate the pain of patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, lung problems, heart problems etc. which are normally not curable. So, it takes a gifted and smart person to do the job effectively and they must contain qualities like patience, good temperament and good caring heart.
To become a hospice nurse, one needs to obtain a bachelor degree in nursing and he/she should be a registered nurse. Two years of experience in hospice training is required and finally, an exam has to be passed conducted by National Board for Certification of Hospice Nurses which registers the person as a qualified hospice nurse. The job is on a rise and it is rewarding as well. Hospice nursing fetches a good salary and generally more than other nurses.
