Hospice Nurse, Hospice Nursing Schools, Training, Jobs, and Careers

What is Hospice Nurse?
A hospice nurse is a nurse who specializes in caring for terminally ill patients. He or she is there to improve a patient's quality of life. Through exceptional caring and compassion, comprehensive palliative care, the patient can die with dignity.

The job of the hospice nurse is to provide palliative care, not try to cure the patient's disease but rather to strive to reduce the pain and make them more comfortable. The job can be emotionally draining as well as mentally demanding. It requires a lot of patience.

The hospice nurse must be able to aid families and friends, as well as the patient through the process of terminally ill diseases. It may be best for the nurse to have a strong and stable mind set in this type of work.

There are a few types of hospice nurses. In hospice care, there are case managers, intake and admission nurses, visit nurse, and triage nurse.

The case manager has the responsibility of managing the patient's care plan and assessing the patient and plan. The admission and intake nurse spends much time with both the patient and the caregiver to discuss the hospice philosophy and hospice care plan for patient.

The visiting nurse has no management position; they are there to implement the care to the patient. The triage nurse has the responsibility of aiding the caregiver and patient over the phone. There is a team environment when it comes to hospice care and giving the patient the best care possible.

The hospice nurse has many responsibilities, including:

1. Giving emotional support to the patient and their family and friends.
2. Giving palliative care to help reduce pain with the patient's illness.
3. Observe, assess, and record patients' records.
4. Becoming the eyes and ears to the physicians.
5. Giving the patient comfort in knowing that they can have dignity, companionship, and are pain free with their terminal ill disease.
6. Keeping the patient comfortable and content.

The hospice nurse works in a team environment but during the actual care, it is independent. Hospice care is a lot of one on one interaction with the patient keeping them calm and peaceful. The nurse in hospice works under the physician and keeps them constantly informed on the patient's status.

How to become a Hospice Nurse:
To become a hospice nurse is much like becoming a regular nurse. You will need to have your high-school diploma or equivalent to further your educational training to become a hospice nurse. You must attend an accredited nursing school program to become a registered nurse (RN).

The registered nurse program is a two or four-year degree in a college with associate or bachelor's of science in nursing. In addition to receiving your degree, the hospice nurse must take the state certification exam and pass, the state boards nursing program in your state oversees it.

The courses you will be taking to become a hospice nurse are:

1. Human Anatomy
2. Biology
3. Chemistry
4. Human Physiology
5. Psychology

Once you have completed your nursing program, you can find employment in many facilities such as:

1. Hospitals
2. Skilled Nursing Homes
3. Home Health Agencies
4. Hospice Centers

Hospice Nurse Salary:
Hospice nurses make decent income. The national average pay is $72,000 per year. We know some that make as much as $79,000 per year. Of course, this depends on your location and years of experience. Also keep in mind that your pay will continue to increase as you gain more experience and years of service.

Hospice Nursing School:
Hospice nursing schools calls for a certain level of specialization. You can attend a school that offers LPN/LVN or RN to become one.

One such school is University of Phoenix. They have campus and online programs. In fact, they are the leading innovators in online education. Follow this link to visit and get their free information.

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