“Some people are terrified at the thought of hospice,” said Danielle Faust, LPN (Home Health), with Grove Park Hospice.
“So when I’m asked what type of work I do, I like to say that I’m just an usher in heaven’s waiting room,” she said.
Working with hospice, a service offered to those with a life expectancy of six months or less, is challenging, but Faust sees her work as a lot more than just a job.
It’s a ministry given to her by God that allows her to serve Him while serving others during some of the most difficult days of their lives, she said.
“I simply listen to their concerns, answer all their questions to the best of my ability. … I am a shoulder to cry on,” Faust said.
She’s also there for the patient’s family and caregivers. She offers suggestions on how to make tasks easier and reassures them that they’re a doing a great job in caring for their loved one.
Her goal, and that of the entire hospice team, is to ensure that each patient has the best quality of life possible with whatever time they have left on earth.
The most difficult thing about the job is losing not just the patient, but the family as well, Faust said. She sees them at least twice a week for a couple of months and then, all of a sudden, they’re gone.
At times, this causes her some personal grief.
“I really miss seeing the patients and their families,” she said. “You can’t help but to love them.”
Like Faust, Latonya Kearse White, RN, MSN, case manager, sees the job as much more than just a job.
“Hospice is a holistic service,” she said. “We take care of the patient and the family. It’s more than the medical. It’s spiritual, social and environmental care.”
Part of her job involves explaining what hospice offers and getting patients admitted into the program.
That happens after a patient has been diagnosed by a physician as having less than six months to live and when no more aggressive treatment is available, she said.
Caring for a hospice patient involves the cooperation of the entire Grove Park Hospice team, she said. It’s made up of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, licensed social workers, home health aides, chaplains and volunteers who go into the home or facility and provide companionship to the patients.
All these team members support patients in some way, either medically, physically or emotionally, said Debbie Hare, LMSW, executive director. Together, they help provide the patients with good, quality time that they can spend with their families.
For example, the chaplains have specialized training in grief counseling that gives them more understanding about helping people, she said.
“I’ve been doing this almost 30 years,” she said. “What I have found over the years is that sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger than the pastor you’ve had for years.”
White noted that family members are also an important part of the team.
“We have to rely on them when we’re not there,” she said.
She’s been working with hospice since 2008. She became interested in the team when she saw how much it impacted the community.
Many nurses find the job so stressful that they don’t last long, White said.
Grove Park Hospice Non-Profit Foundation
The Grove Park Hospice Non-Profit Foundation comes to the aid of patients with various financial needs, White said. It helps with medical, legal and environmental needs and more.
“We want them to be as comfortable as possible. Anything that impacts their quality of life, their care, we want to be there in any way possible to make them comfortable,” White said.
The job is emotionally draining at times and it does get stressful, she said. Giving a family news about a death is really hard.
“But the reward is that the patient is no longer suffering and we were able to keep them comfortable in their homes,” White said. That’s very rewarding and she plans on going on with her work.
“It’s not for the money but that I love what I do,” she said.
COVID’s effects on hospice care
COVID-19 was extremely hard on hospice patients, who were already lonely, Hare said.
Some of them could get out, but others were bedridden. After COVID hit, no one could visit them, not even their families.
Nursing homes only allowed visits by the nurses every other week, and they had to be eyes and ears for the families, she said.
Volunteers had been visiting them twice a week and then suddenly that was over, she said. Volunteers, social workers and chaplains called them on the phone, but that wasn’t the same as seeing them in person.
Some people visited them with FaceTime or Zoom, but so many elderly people are not computer savvy, she said.
It was also very difficult on caregivers, Hare said. They had so little backup and were already so busy.
“We tried to take care of the staff too, because they were very stressed,” she said.
She had meals brought in, but they had to come in at different times to eat. She also did a lot of educational programs.
Faust agreed that COVID affected the care of hospice patients greatly. There’s nothing more comforting than a hug or holding someone’s hand, she said.
Wearing full gear – head covering, masks, shield, goggles, gowns, etc. – made it a lot more challenging to provide comfort.
Just wearing masks makes it harder for the patient to hear you when you speak to them.
“Trying to comfort someone while maintaining a 6-foot distance,” or holding someone’s hand while wearing a glove creates a barrier between you, Faust said.
It’s difficult to “smize,” or smile with your eyes, but she learned to do it.
“You have to dig a little deeper and ask God to help them to be able to see your heart and know that you are sincerely with them on this journey,” she said.
Hospice – a different field of care
Hospice workers are specially trained in palliative care. Not everybody can do it. It’s based on life experiences. A hospice worker has to be both spiritually and emotionally competent.
“It takes a special type personality … empathy, and humility – where you have compassion for a person who is vulnerable,” White said.
Both White and Faust faced loss and dealt with it through hospice care.
Faust’s father was in hospice care before she went to work at Grove Park.
“My personal loss made me more compassionate and encouraged me to continue to provide the best care for my patients and their families,” she said.
White’s father was a cancer patient.
“I struggled with his care, being the daughter instead of a nurse,” she said. She doesn’t know how she would have dealt with his death emotionally and mentally without hospice.
Both White and Faust agree that it takes a special person to be part of a hospice team, and Grove Park Hospice is outstanding in its caring for the people it serves.
“Respect for each other and the willingness to work together is the key,” Faust said.
“I would say we have an exceptional team, passionate about what we do,” White said. “It takes a special person to be part of it.”
#pu-email-form-covid-email { clear: both; background-color: #fff; color: #222; background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 15px 20px; margin-bottom: 40px; box-shadow: 0px 2px 0px 0px rgba(0,0,0,.05); border-top: 4px solid rgba(0,0,0,.8); border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.2); display: none; } #pu-email-form-covid-email, #pu-email-form-covid-email p { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”; } #pu-email-form-covid-email h1 { font-size: 24px; margin: 15px 0 5px 0; font-family: “serif-ds”, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif; } #pu-email-form-covid-email .lead { margin-bottom: 5px; } #pu-email-form-covid-email .email-desc { font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; opacity: 0.7; } #pu-email-form-covid-email form { padding: 10px 30px 5px 30px; } #pu-email-form-covid-email .disclaimer { opacity: 0.5; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 100%; } #pu-email-form-covid-email .disclaimer a { color: #222; text-decoration: underline; } #pu-email-form-covid-email .email-hammer { border-bottom: 3px solid #222; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; padding: 0 10px 5px 10px; margin-bottom: -5px; font-size: 16px; }