The weight of information

Photo Credit: Peter Dondel
Photo Credit: Peter Dondel
A hospice nurse has a lot of information bouncing around in their head.

During my first two months of field work I can use the word “bombarded” to describe what it was like. I was bombarded with a lot of end of life experience. Certainly, end of life is what hospice is all about, but not all patients have a quick decline. When I look at my caseload now, there are only a couple of names I recognize from my first couple of weeks. This means that I have had a lot of experience with patients who are in a steep decline. It has been good for me because it has caused me to learn symptom management early in my hospice career.

It is a cliché, but with great knowledge comes great responsibility. With my increased experience it will be really tempting to walk into a home and try to pour out all the information I can in one sitting. I’m learning very quickly that the information I have in my head caries a lot of weight with it. I have already seen the look on the faces of a few caregivers who were given too much information in one visit. They just stare at me with a blank look on their face. They have been taken to a place where no information given them is being retained. A lot happens in the hours and days leading up to death. A lot of changes can occur with the human body. There are a lot of different things that can happen, but none of those changes are guaranteed. If I’m not careful, I will provide everyone with more scenarios than they can even begin to process. It’s my job to make sure that I don’t try to saddle my patient and their caregiver with too much information at once. It’s my job to give out the information I have in measured doses.

End of life is heavy. The information I carry around in my head is heavy too. My patients, and their loved ones, need a nurse who hasn’t turned his job into a collection of algorithms he applies to treat everything that can happen in someone’s last few hours on earth.

I need to be sure to stay in touch with the human side of what I do, or I will take an event that can be smooth and make it really complicated.

James
James worked on-and-off as an LPN for over 20 years. In 2014 he completed a bridge program and became an RN. James became a hospice nurse in January 2015. He lives in the Kansas City area with his wife of over 30 years, 4 daughters and 2 sons in law.

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