Reflections on Being a Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse

As we celebrate Nurses Month throughout the month of May, we are recognizing nurses for their commitment to the profession and for providing compassionate care and support to the patients they serve. We thank our nurses for their dedication to our mission to celebrate the lives of those we have the privilege of serving by providing superior care and superior services to each patient and family. 

 We invite you to read about our nurses at Ohio’s Hospice of Central Ohio. 

• Leon enjoys helping patients and families in their time of need. His favorite memory as a nurse is caring for a retired WWI general when he was in the military.  

• Robin became a nurse to have a purpose of love and kindness in her means of earning a living. To her, kindness is assuming everyone deserves the best care possible regardless of the version of them we are seeing and delivering that care.  

• Valerie dreamed of being a nurse since she was 12 years old because she wanted to take care of people. “I always thought I would be a pediatric nurse, however once graduating nursing school, I went straight into critical care in an ICU and then found my passion in hospice.” She finds the connections made with patients particularly meaningful and very rewarding to her work. To Valerie, kindness means caring, understanding, patience, smiling, and going that extra mile to make a meaningful connection or doing something for someone that might not be part of the job.  

• Ashley wanted a career that was challenging, interesting, and would make a difference in people’s lives every day. That led her to a career in nursing. “Kindness is a gesture of selflessness,” she said. “It is offered to another with no way of knowing how it will be received. But we do it anyway.”  

• Shay became a nurse after experiencing the wonderful care her grandmother received under the care of hospice. To Shay, kindness means treating others the way you want to be treated.  

• Michelle likes to help others feel better. To her, kindness means being open-minded, nonjudgmental, listening, and being patient and present with patients and families. One of her favorite memories as a nurse is laughing and singing karaoke with the residents she cared for at a nursing facility. “I would take a break to sing a song with them and get them to sing along,” she shared. “I am not a good singer, but they would laugh and sing every time.” 

• Amy had a gift of caregiving and wanted to fulfill that purpose while impacting others. To Amy, kindness means sharing with others the goodness that is in each one of us.

• Stacey started her career as an STNA at 16 years old. When her mother was diagnosed with cancer, she learned how to do IV ATBs and change her catheter, and felt that if she could care for her, she could care for others. She went to nursing school and received her license one month before her mother passed. To Stacey, kindness means being kind to all patients and treating them as you would want your own family members treated.  

• Jessica is passionate about caring for others and loves to educate and bring clarity to those who need it most. To her, kindness means being gentle, patient, compassionate, and considerate. One of Jessica’s favorite memories is a family that she connected with instantly on an admissions visit and later visited again during an on-call visit one month later. During the admissions visit, the patient was walking around the house, conversing, and making jokes, but had a rapidly progressing illness. When Jessica arrived for the on-call visit, the patient was lying in bed, and she assessed that he was actively dying. Jessica sat with his wife and family, and the patient passed later that night. Jessica attended the funeral, where the patient’s family thanked her for being there for them. “I was honored to be their hospice nurse,” she said.

To learn more about Ohio’s Hospice of Central Ohio, please visit: www.HospiceofCentralOhio.org