There are hospice nurse jobs that work specifically with children, jobs that require nurses to work in a patient’s home, and jobs that require nurses to work in a hospice facility. Some positions require long hours and may even require overnight stays at a patient’s residence. Registered nurses are the most common candidates for hospice nurse jobs, which may also include positions for hospice nursing supervisors.
All hospice nurses work with patients who are suffering from a terminal illness, regardless of the type of hospice nurse job they have. Hospice care is also known as palliative care or end-of-life care because it is a unique type of health care. Registered nurses with specialized training in providing medical care and personal assistance to patients who will eventually die from incurable diseases work as hospice nurses.
A hospice nurse may work in a hospice facility, ensuring that patients are as comfortable as possible during their final days of life, depending on the hospice nurse job. However, a hospice nurse may work in home care while providing nursing services to a single patient in some cases. Hospice nurse jobs in either of these settings may require a nurse to spend several hours with a patient at a time, or even to stay with a patient and his or her family overnight. During this time, a nurse may perform a variety of tasks, such as feeding a patient, administering pain medications, conversing with a patient, cleaning the patient’s living space, and even providing comfort to the patient’s grieving family. A hospice nurse, in particular, assists families in preparing for and understanding the death process in the final hours of a person’s life.
Some hospice nurse positions focus on caring for sick children. Children who are cared for hospice nurses, like adult hospice patients, have terminal illnesses such as cancer, genetic disorders, and other incurable diseases that will eventually take their lives. It’s not uncommon for one or more hospice nurses to look after a sick child for the rest of his or her life.
The specific qualifications for hospice nurse jobs may differ. A hospice nurse, on the other hand, must be a licensed registered nurse in most jurisdictions and have completed hospice-specific training. Before applying for hospice nurse jobs in some areas, nurses must complete an additional certification process. While a bachelor’s degree in nursing is not required to become a registered nurse, some positions in palliative care prefer to hire nurses with a bachelor’s degree or higher.