Improving Access to Hospice Care

Nicole Yohrling RN, Verrazano Class of 2019, completed a degree in Nursing

While researching for my capstone, I was taken back by the difficulties in caring for end-of-life patients. I knew exactly how I wanted to fix this; I wanted to improve Hospice Care! I chose this topic not only because it is so relevant to today’s health care system but also because it truly fascinated me. I have a duty to serve others and I felt as I wrote this paper, I had a duty to understand why Hospice Care is still struggling. Through this research, I am better able to understand that there are many barriers that nurses, healthcare providers, and organizations face in being able to better the care of end-of-life patients.

This particular topic hit close to home because a year ago my grandmother was put on hospice care two days prior to her passing away. Unfortunately, we weren’t aware of the opportunity for her to receive hospice care before it was too late and there was nothing more for the doctors to do but keep her comfortable. It is with this experience that I realized most people who’s loved ones are on hospice care are suffering with the same time restriction. This is why I made it my mission to understand why hospice care is not accessible to people that qualify for it sooner. Through my personal experience and research, I am better able to understand that hospitals aren’t required to have hospice units or have proper accreditations that oversee the program leading to healthcare professionals not informing the patient on end-of-life care. These facilities aren’t trained to properly care for and communicate with end-of-life patients and their families, which could lead to poor quality of care and unsafe environments.

Upon completing my capstone, I have realized the importance of end-of-life care and that there needs to be changes made for hospice care to improve. I want to be able to enforce this change by initiating a committee at my workplace to discuss the training programs implemented for hospice nurses and healthcare providers. I believe through this committee, I will be able to implement ways in which to improve the quality of care being given for these patients. I hope to further develop my research by fostering a program to train hospice nurses and compare the care that is given between nurses that didn’t use my program versus the nurses that did. I hope through this, I will be able to see that my program can change the way hospice care is given and improve it, overall!