Hi,
I havent posted many things in the past year, but have kept up reading! I felt so compelled to write to you about hospice though! I was a Hospice Volunteer Coordinator at a home health agency for two years, before that I had worked as an RN there for 11 years. Those two years were the most rewarding and remarkable years of my career as a caregiver!
Yes hospice is about death and dying, but is is also so much about living! Living out the final days or months with as much dignity and peace and love that there is. To be on hospice you have a six month prognosis BUT, that doesnt mean that your patient WILL die within that six months. Many hospice patients are on for longer and yes many are on for only days.
Since I had to retire, because of fibromyalgia, I found out how much love my little yorkies give to me. (I never had yorkies until I got RU three years ago, now I have three
) and the thought of bringing that kind of love to hospice patients would be so incredible for them. It takes a special kind of person to be a hospice volunteer, and from what I've read on your posts you are the kind of person who whould be wonderful! I suggest you get the book Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying
by Maggie Callanan , Patricia Kelley (two hospice nurses) there are wonderful stories in there .....I could go on and on (sorry to be so long) but please PM me if you want to talk more....I pray you'll make the right decision for you, but do you know what ALL my volunteers used to tell me? They felt guilty because they felt that their patients gave them so much more than they gave their patients! God Bless!