Community Clinical: Hospice of the Valley Week 4

Cheyenne Kirkwood

Community Clinical

Youngstown State University

Professor Amy Weaver

November 16, 2017

 I am so happy to finally say that I am done with Hospice of the Valley after almost four

consecutive weeks with multiple hospice nurses. My overall experience with hospice was

different than any other experience I had with my other community clinicals. Hospice care gave

me insight on the process of death especially the last seven days and the use of comfort kits.

With this all being said my final experience with Hospice care was completely different than all

my other experiences I had. I actually got to go to more than one patient visit and I finally didn’t

have to sit in on a four hour long meeting. I had such a great time with my nurse she was so kind,

thoughtful, and determined to the right thing for her patients at all times.

Examines health related issues that impacted the individual client

During my last time with hospice we visited a young patient who had an active and

independent life six weeks ago was now in an assisted living facility, in hospice care, and dyeing

from stage four cancer. This visit showed how just in a split of a second or in this case weeks

your life can be completely different with your life being completely out of your control. This is

exactly the case with this patient who was extremely depressed and hated the process of

everyone else controlling what to do. For example, this patient hated the fact in order to go out

and do the things they liked, they had to sign out. Even though this measure is a safety protocol

its hard for an individual who was extremely independent weeks ago is now being dictated when

they can leave. In addition, to being frustrated over this and the change this patient was severely

and expressed it multiple times, which is where the hospice nurse used her nursing skills to help

this individual with some coping measures with their depression. In addition to being depressed

this patient was also very anxious about everything going, with every right so being all the

change this patient went through. My nurse in addition to give them coping measures for

depression she did the exact same thing with anxiety, and also let them know they have a PRN
medication for anxiety and if they felt they ever needed to just ask one of the staff nurses and if it

is within the time frame to have on they can.

Overall, my final and last experience with hospice care was amazing it was very different

then my past times. I got to see more into how an individual feels when it comes dyeing and no

longer having a control over life, which gave me the opportunity to see how the nurse handles

this situation. With my nurse handling it was compassion and using her critical thinking to make

the patient feel safe and comfortable as possible.