Hospice of Cincinnati

Lauren Chiec, Summer 2012

Hospice of Cincinnati is an organization that provides support for patients at the end of their lives. I had expected to have many sad moments throughout my internship, but found just the opposite to be true. The staff at Hospice of Cincinnati (HOC) truly do all that they can to ensure that patients and their families have the best possible end-of-life experience. I spent my summer learning about the wide variety of services that HOC provides. To do that, a good deal of my time was spent shadowing different members of the healthcare team. I spent time with physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and administrative staff to get an idea of the role that everyone plays to provide the highest quality care. I sat in on meetings and spoke with staff members about the challenges they are faced with when treating their patients.

When I was not shadowing, I spent time in the Education Department, which oversees the various disciplines involved in patient care. I learned about the behind-the-scenes part of HOC that keeps it running smoothly. I helped with chart reviews when the staff was concerned about fall prevention, infection control, and pain management. I researched information about patient care plans and put together a poster to help staff understand how to create and use them more efficiently. Mostly, my job description changed on a daily basis and I helped out each day with whatever project was currently being worked on.

The idea for my project came from a request from staff. Many registered nurses wanted to be more informed about the normal progression of terminal illnesses. Therefore, I contacted a physician who is working with us to create a continuing education program for the RNs. We chose to start with end-stage pulmonary diseases, and plan to provide information about common symptoms seen at the end-stage of many pulmonary diseases, typical treatment plans that can be expected, and how to communicate effectively with the physician and the families. Hopefully this program will serve as a model for future programs focused on other terminal diseases.