Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Hospice care involves building compassionate connections with patients nearing the end of life, despite the emotional challenges of anticipating their passing.
- Staff members including nurses, social workers and chaplains collaborate to provide holistic support, allowing patients to die with dignity.
- Despite the high emotional stakes, hospice workers express fulfillment from their roles, with some experiencing personal attachment and grief.
SALT LAKE CITY — Julee Wolf and other leaders of hospice and home care services in the Salt Lake Valley know that that they and their staff will build a connection with patients and their families.
Despite working in a field where everyone seeks your help because they have been told they are nearing the end of life, the nurses, social workers, chaplains and others who work in hospice care understand that making a connection that may end is part of the job.
And it's also part of being human.
"Everyone thought I was crazy (to work in hospice)," Wolf said. She was a hospice nurse and now works as the executive director of Bristol Hospice.
"But you meet the most amazing people ... friends and families of patients," she continued. "We have healthy boundaries — you have to have those — but mostly this is fulfilling work. It's beautiful."
Some of the nurses and other medical staff note that almost everyone they know thinks that, similar to Wolf, they are crazy. A field where death is the expected outcome doesn't seem like one where you cannot wait to go to work in the morning, according to friends and families.
This may be due to misconceptions about hospice care itself. Hospice care is a form of medical care often paid by Medicare for those determined by a doctor to be nearing the end of their life. It takes place wherever the patient is.
A team of professionals including a physician, a nurse, a social worker, and occasionally a chaplain, work with the patient and their family to provide a holistic round of mental, physical and emotional support, allowing the patient to die with respect and dignity.
Hospice is typically recommended by a doctor when they believe the patient has less than six months to live, which means a hospice team can lose multiple patients within the year. But the opposite can also be true, similar to former President Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice for the last 19 months, you can receive services longer than expected.
With this time comes the potential to create strong bonds with patients and their families — and to experience the sadness of their loss, something experienced by nurses.
Many hospice care companies have bereavement services for not only family members of the one who has passed away but also for the staff. The companies offer anything from therapists in employee assistance programs to programs created for staff who need a chance to grieve together. Typically, whatever an employee needs to process the loss is provided.
"Grief is real, and it is raw, even though we're not family," said Melody Hillam, a social worker for Dignity Home Health and Hospice. "We know we're helping people pass through life ... but it's still rough."
Not all hospice patients die during their first hospice service. Studies have shown that people receiving hospice care will live two to three times longer than if they never received the services. Some can also get better, so much so that they no longer need care despite a doctor's belief that they would die within the first six months of receiving hospice. These cases are rare, however.
Despite working so close to the deaths of people of many ages, every hospice staff member interviewed for this story said they loved their job. Many said they felt called to work in the field due to the fulfilling nature of the work.
"I do get attached. We do get attached and care for people," said Dr. Dominic Moore, from Intermountain Health. He leads the hospice work for adults and children but is a clinician in the pediatric hospice at Primary Children's Hospital.
"That's what makes it fulfilling. Fighting against caring about people is counterproductive ... we grieve. We pay our respects."
