Are You Satisfied With Your Hospice Job? (Research, Video 1: 22)

              Pictured are members of the Guardian Hospice Care Team in Alexandria, LA.

           

Are you satisfied with your hospice job? If a poll were taken today, do you think most of your fellow employees would share your feelings? How people feel about their jobs can impact their lives greatly. Taking time to evaluate job satisfaction can be informative, particularly for improving quality of life.

Hospice workers face unique challenges as they interact regularly with terminally ill patients and their families. How do workers in the various hospice disciplines rate their job satisfaction? Researchers at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine evaluated 8,495 staff members from 177 participating hospices in 41 states. They used the Survey of Team Attitudes and Relationships (STAR) with these results:

The mean score was 28 on a 0-100 scale. Hospice-level scores ranged from 15 to 44 with 44 being the highest level of satisfaction. The following are categories and scores:

Physicians -- 42

Chaplains -- 30

Nurses' Aides – 29

Nonclinical staff and clinical staff -- 28

Bereavement Coordinators -- 27

Nurses -- 26

Social Workers -- 25

This research concluded that variations in job satisfaction among hospices and disciplines are significant. Do these results surprise you, or did you expect them to be similar?

In this video, Dr. Martha Twaddle, Chief Medical Officer of Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter, explains the role of the hospice interdisciplinary team. 

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Holiday Blues Grief Support

The holidays can be a troubling time for many who are adjusting to the loss of loved ones. Through the years, people associate holiday traditions with familiar people and places. These suggestions  offer bereavement support for those grieving during the holidays:

Mourners have to decide the best ways they can adjust to the holidays. One option is to create new holiday traditions. If holidays were celebrated as a family, new traditions can be planned as a family, so everyone can have input. This will give family members an opportunity to discuss their feelings about the deceased loved one and possibly include something in the new tradition that commemorates that person in an uplifting manner. This could be a type of memorial that adds pleasure to holidays in the future, something that would have pleased the deceased.

Whether celebrating the holidays alone, with others, or not at all, people should always follow their hearts and do what feels best for them. There is no one way for everyone. There are different ways that work well for different people. Some people who found the holidays stressful, phony, or too commercial before their loved one died may want to redirect their holiday focus. They might choose to participate in an activity that is calmer and more meaningful to them such as volunteering at places where they can help others or sharing with others in another capacity. Others may want to celebrate alone or with a few friends, take a trip to another state or country, or just be involved with something they enjoy doing that may or may not have anything to do with the holidays, but everything to do with their own quality of life."

© Frances Shani Parker, Becoming Dead Right

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Holiday End-of-Life Conversations

The holidays often provide opportunities for families and close friends to get together, reminisce, and have a joyful time. But what about happiness in the future? Why not take advantage of this time together to engage in important end-of life conversations that can be crucial later in honoring end-of-life wishes of those you love and yourself.

Engage With Grace is a a movement aimed at promoting these kinds of conversations using the five questions below. They’re not easy questions, but they are important and shouldn’t be ignored. Sometimes we think we know what loved ones want, and we really don’t. Later in life, when several people are involved in making inevitable decisions about life threatening health matters, guessing, confusion, and hurt feelings can easily hinder progress. The key to preventing this negativity is having end-of-life conversations when they can be positive with personal input regarding what loved ones really want. Fortunately, many people actually enjoy discussing their answers with loved ones.

Add new meaning to your holidays by including thoughtful conversations that can improve quality of life. No one knows what the circumstances could be at future family gatherings during a healthcare crisis. You and your loved ones can benefit greatly from answering these questions and implementing the suggestions given. The Caring Connections website has information to help you with your plans. (Click on the questions below to make them larger):

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Nurses’ Burnout (Research, Video 1:43)

Burnout among nurses can be costly, not only for nurses personally, but also in terms of litigation, staff turnover, and risks to patient care. While many nurses love their jobs, when frustration becomes overwhelming, burnout can set in. A University of Pennsylvania study of 95,499 nurses revealed that the highest job dissatisfaction was among nurses who worked directly with patients in hospitals and nursing homes.

One irony is that a major concern of nurses is healthcare benefits, which are less than other white-collar workers. Satisfaction levels of patients in hospitals are lowered when there are more dissatisfied or burned out nurses working among them. This can also negatively impact the quality of care patients receive. There is no one easy solution to the problem of nurses’ burnout. Various job issues have to be addressed.

At personal levels, nurses can benefit from the caregiving of others while they serve as caregivers themselves. Ohio State University Medical Center has started the Stress, Trauma and Resilience (STAR) program to do just that. Nurses and other healthcare providers receive support, particularly on reducing stress, crisis management, and peer counseling. This video describes the program:

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Veterans: Hospice and Palliative Care Trends (Research, Video 4:46)

If you are involved in hospice-palliative care work, you have probably had the opportunity to serve a veteran. Nat was my most memorable veteran patient. Although he had fought in Viet Nam years before we met as hospice volunteer and patient, his stories about his life and military service were as raw and real as any I have heard:

“I’ve seen and done things you couldn’t imagine. Some of them were horrible, I mean really horrible. Don’t ask me to tell you what they were, because I can’t talk about it. They say time heals all wounds, but it’s a lie. I left Viet Nam, but Viet Nam never left me. I carry it with me everywhere I go. All these years later, I still have nightmares like you wouldn’t believe. The doctor says it’s post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. I wake up shaking, gasping for breath with tears in my eyes. In my dreams, I’m always running hard, trying to escape. Sometimes my enemies are close enough for me to touch. I almost stop breathing to keep them from hearing me. I’m constantly thinking I’m not going to make it. Some nights they kill me before I wake up.” (Excerpt from Becoming Dead Right)

Nat is like many men and women who have served our country and now find themselves in need of hospice care. The number of veterans receiving hospice care continues to become a major area of expansion for the Veterans Health Administration. Research by the Department of Aging and Mental Health Disparities at the University of South Florida reports that, of the millions of dollars being spent on veterans in hospice care, most of the funds are spent on younger veterans. Future trends indicate a growing need to allocate more funds for end-of-life care. Support and appreciation for the horrific sacrifices veterans have made are especially important during their death journeys.

This video titled Reaching Out to Those Who Served was produced by the Tennessee Hospice Association as part of a grant through the Veterans Administration and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It presents a detailed overview of hospice and palliative care services for veterans.

                  





Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Older Adult Sleep Problems: Drug-Free Solutions (Research, Video .25)

Older adults have sleep problems just like millions of others do. Unfortunately, they often find inappropriate treatments that they may think are effective. This sleep research, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, focused on the perceived effectiveness of older adults’ various sleep treatments. Information was gathered through a mailed questionnaire to a community-based sample of older adults with 242 responding. These are examples of the sleep interventions older adults used:

1)    Watching television, listening to the radio, and reading were the most popular interventions.

2)    Taking medications such as pain medication and prescription sleeping pills were also common. Older adults perceived sleeping pills as being most effective.

3)    Drinking alcohol was another form of self-treatment.

About half of those using alcohol and prescribed over the-counter sleep aids had not discussed their sleep problems with their doctor. Not discussing sleep problems and treatments they are using with their doctors can worsen their problems and possibly put them in serious danger healthwise. Healthcare providers and caregivers should make it a point to initiate conversations with older adults about sleeping patterns.

In this video, Dr. David Schulman, Sleep Specialist at Emory University, recommends the following seven drug-free sleep tips. Older adults, in addition to keeping their healthcare providers informed, can use them:

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog