Hospice CNA by Karen Williams

A hospice is defined as a medical facility providing emotional and mental health care services for patients who are terminally ill along with their families. A CNA providing services in a hospice, is generally referred to as hospice CNA. A CNA with considerable experience and a regular CNA certification can take up job at a hospice, no additional qualifications are needed. A hospice CNA can either get employed at a hospice center or at a patient's home.

A hospice nurse usually provides solace and comfort to patients who are at the end of their life by taking care of them and their respective families too. Thus they provide both emotional and physical support to the patients and families. A hospice nurse usually takes complete care of the patients by administering medications on time and providing massages to provide comfort, if any required. They generally take utmost care of their patients and find every possible way to keep them away from pain.

They even educate the families of patients and teach them the methods of taking care of their loved ones, if the patients prefer to be taken care of, by their families, instead of being in hospital. This way they ensure that the patient's last days are lead in the comfort of their loved ones.

In case, a hospice nurse gets employed to take care of a terminally ill patient, then at times they even prefer to do some simple household chores, so that, the patient's family members get maximum time to spend with the patient. This gives the families some more time to be spent with their loved one, who is on the death bed, counting days.

On an average, a hospice nurse can earn up to $57,280 a year. Being a hospice nurse, is not a child's play. They need to have a lot of patience, need to know how to keep their cool at times of stress, need to be cheerful and pleasant, should be friendly, so that they can easily build a rapport with the patient, should be able to easily communicate with the family members in such a manner that, the family members understand what they want to convey. They need to be able to provide comfort and solace to the family members.

They should be wise enough and able to keep the stress resulting from the job, off their own personal life. Their job is really demanding and an emotional one too. A hospice nurse needs to be an epitome of incredible compassion, spirituality, patience. Also, the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds is also necessary.

If you are an youngster pursuing education in CNA and are interested in taking up a job in hospice, then, try to utilize the rotation policy of your school and take up work in a hospice setting, this way you can get a feel of the typical life of a hospice CNA. If you are afraid of watching people die, then this job is not for you. A successful hospice nurse is one who can ease and reduce patient's fears and bear to watch them suffer immense pain. It is definitely not a job for the faint hearted!