Working as a hospice nurse is a job I loved doing. Every time I had a trainee nurse, I would explain the paperwork because it was important. Most of the time I would tell stories like the ones I mentioned in earlier chapters. The most important thing I would stress is taking care of the patient and the family as if they were their family. I would discuss patient center care. This is care that is centered around the patient and sometimes around the family.

I would always tell the training nurses to ask what kind of music the patient likes, I always had Pandora on my phone without ads to play for patients. It was very soothing to the patient and the families loved that I would play music for their loved one, especially if it was something the patient just loved. The main philosophy I gave was it is the little things that will be appreciated by the patient and their family. A perfect example of this, I was taking care of a lady in her late forties, I'll call her Sally. Well, Sally was alert and oriented and could hold a conversation with no problem. Her husband was sitting next to the hospital bed and rubbed her legs and mentioned they were a little hairy. She had a look on her face that said I can't shave them and I want to.

Her daughters made the comment their mom always had smooth legs and they felt she was embarrassed. I walked over to the bed and spoke with her and her husband and politely asked if she would like me to shave her legs when I bathed her in the morning. Her face lit up so much and she had a small tear in her eye. "Will you do that for me?"

I told her "Yes of course I will." I shaved the lady's legs when I gave her a bed bath in the morning. I always worked the night shift.

Afterward, her husband rubbed her legs and smiled and stated "Smooth." She smiled and he smiled and the daughters smiled and I didn't need a thank you the smiles were enough. That's an example of patient center care and a hospice heart.

The lady passed away a month later, and even though I was only with her that one time, her daughters sent in a customer comment card stating that she would always tell anyone who came in to take care of her, that I shaved her legs and it made her so much more comfortable.

I had another patient, I am going to call Carl. Carl's family couldn't get Carl to eat anything they put in front of him. He would just sit up in the hospital bed and look at the food on the bedside table. They could get him to drink, but that was all. I asked his family if they even asked him what he wanted to eat. They stated he was on a certain diet because of his health issues.

Carl was dying. The doctor gave him three months. The night I was with him and until the morning, I talked with his family and tried to explain it didn't matter about his special diet anymore it was not going to stop his dying, but my words fell on deaf ears. The morning came and I bathed him. After the bath, he said he was hungry, so I asked him what he wanted, he said he wanted ice cream. I went into the freezer and made a bowl of ice cream for him. He ate two bowls. His family was shocked I gave him ice cream for breakfast, and the fact he ate two bowls.

After that, the family feed him ice cream until he became unresponsive and passed away. Hospice may deal with patients that have a diagnosis of six months to a year, including end-of-life issues but it is all about the comfort and the quality of life/care the patient has in hospice not the disease. Patient center care treats the patient, family, and the disease to create comfort.