STANTHONY_10K_REGISTRATION_FEB20_1030AM 2012

Lean to Knit_Crochet Class 2012

Qtrly NL Winter 12a

St. Anthony’s Hospice Volunteer Newsletter Feb.

Because hospice allows people to die with love and dignity, in the place of their choosing, the way they want it to be.

My hospice journey began when I was just 17 years old. I had never before heard of Hospice and obviously knew nothing about the concept of Hospice. I was first introduced to Hospice while still in highschool when I heard a Hospice Nurse give a talk about hospice care and what she did for the patient’s and families she cared for on a daily basis. I was so moved and energized by what I was hearing that I said to myself “I want to do that. I want to be part of that kind of caring”. I never let go of that and have now been with Hospice for over 17 years.

I can remember caring for a woman in her late 50’s who was dying of lung cancer. While making a routine visit to her house it was apparent that she was quickly declining. Her daughter was in the living room sitting beside her mother’s hospital bed and I could tell that she was having a difficult time. I said to her “What can I do for YOU?” She told me that she wished she could lay with her mother and hold her the way her mother used to hold her when she was a child. I told her she absolutely could and we repositioned her mother in the bed and she climbed in the bed and held her and told her how much she loved her. Her mother died just a few days later.

About 5 years later that same daughter came up to me in the grocery store and thanked me for the care that Hospice provided to her mother, and for allowing her to do what she needed to do most. She said she will always have that memory of being able to have those last hours with her mother, just the two of them. That is what Hospice is all about. Allowing people to die with love and dignity in the place of their choosing the way they want it to be.

St. Anthony’s Hospice is pleased to announce Susan Vickers, MSW, CSW as the Director of Clinical Services and Paulette Layman as Director of Clinical Compliance.

Mark Chumbler, St. Anthony’s Hospice Executive Director states, “Susan Vickers MSW, CSW is assuming the position of Director of Clinical Services. Ms. Vickers has authority and oversight for the St. Anthony’s clinical program, including services provided both in homecare and at the Lucy Smith King Hospice Care Center. Ms. Vickers pares this role with her former duties as Director of Quality. She will continue to lead the performance improvement process for the organization. Ms. Vickers joined St. Anthony’s Hospice in 2007.”

“Paulette Layman, RN, is assuming the position of Director of Clinical Compliance, Ms. Layman becomes the organization’s chief auditor and regulatory director for implementation and documentation. Ms. Layman will continue to ensure compliance with mission compatibility for clinical expenditures. Ms. Layman joined St. Anthony’s Hospice in 1992”

BENEFITS OF AN EARLY REFERAL
“I wish we had been referred to Hospice sooner.”

It’s a sentiment that recurs in patient/family surveys returned to St. Anthony’s Hospice each year. And it is indicative of a trend that concerns hospice providers. Despite the growth of patients and their families using hospice care, a number of studies have shown that the average length of stay has been declining. In fact, experts in hospice care agree that patients need to be enrolled for at least 60 days to take advantage of the full benefit of a hospice program.

Yet, by providing the option of hospice care sooner, you as a physician can continue to make a positive change in the lives of your patients, and help them to maximize their quality of life.
St. Anthony’s Hospice is a positive option, one that aggressively seeks to provide comfort and freedom from pain and other symptom. By understanding and accepting that death is part of the life cycle, St. Anthony’s Hospice wants to assist you in helping patients and their families make life it’s most meaningful until the end of life.
Pain and symptom management – while our number one goal – is just one of the benefits of early referral. There are many others, which include:

• The patient can participate in all planning and decisions.
Before the stress of a medical crisis, early discussions about hospice can facilitate open communication and provide clients a choice and sense of control. Early referral to hospice allows families time to prepare for the changes they face, giving them time to say goodbye and reducing the chance that the family’s grief will be prolonged and complicated. As a physician, you can help clients make that step by discussing all options for care early in the progression of a terminal illness.
• Pain and symptoms are addressed sooner and crises can be avoided.
• Hospitalization can be reduced or eliminated.
• Advance directives can be prepared to avoid difficult decisions later.
• Patients benefit from sustained relationships with the Hospice team.
Because hospice is focused on living, not dying, people who utilize hospice services early in the course of a life-limiting illness have more time to develop personal and professional rapport with supportive staff and volunteers, discuss end-of-life goals, and create an optimal plan of care designed around patient and family wishes. Our clinicians begin their care plan by asking “What Matters Most to you today!” During the last weeks or days, there may be a time to control a patients pain and stabilize symptoms, but the full benefit of the interdisciplinary approach is significantly “shortened.”
• Because end-of-life discussions are difficult.

For more information, contact St. Anthony’s Hospice at:
(270) 826-2326 or 1-800-380-2326
www.stanthonyshospice.org

taste of chocolateMark you calendar and join us Tuesday February 7th 4-7pm at the Webster County Extension office in Dixon, KY for a “Taste of Chocolate” Featuring: chocolate dessert buffet , silent auction, live music. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the following locations and at the door:Webster County Clerk’s office, Baynams, Onton Hair Affair, and Main St. shops in Clay.

Because hospice gives each patient the excellent care they deserve.

My hospice journey began 19 years ago when I was 20 years old. My daddy was diagnosed with non Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He had radiation and chemotherapy, but ultimately the cancer was stronger than the medications. In August of 1992, the cancer had metastasized to his liver, lungs, and brain. In the six weeks following my daddy was in the care of the wonderful family of St. Anthony’s hospice. I will never forget the loving care they gave to my daddy during those last six weeks. They even helped my mother through those difficult months after his death.

My life took a different path after this. I graduated college with a lab tech. degree. I married and had my first child. I went to work at Welborn hospital in the laboratory. My job in the laboratory required me to see patients to collect lab samples. I frequently went to the oncology unit. I found that the short amount of time I was spending with these terminal patients was changing me. I was being called to do more. I went back to college and earned my nursing degree.
It took me a few years before I was able to get a job at St. Anthony’s Hospice. During my interview I was asked why I had applied for position. I told Mark Chumbler “I have always wanted to be a hospice nurse, I just I haven’t made it here yet.” I was so excited and honored that I was hired to be part of the St. Anthony’s Hospice family.

I joined the St. Anthony’s Hospice family on December 1, 2008. The past few years have been the most rewarding time of my life. I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful people and families. When I meet a patient for the first time I know that the relationship will be temporary. This really changes the way you care for someone. I think of my daddy and try to give each patient the excellent care that they deserve.

“MY THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE THIS JOURNEY A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE. WHAT A BLESSING TO HAVE SUCH A SPECTACULAR SERVICE AVAILABLE. MAY GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU OVER AND OVER.”

 

“MY MOTHER BECAME ILL, VERY QUICKLY AND PASSED W/IN THREE MONTHS. HOSPICE STEPPED IN AND ALLOWED ME TOBE A DAUGHTER, INSTEAD OF A CAREGIVER. THEY WERE THERE TO HELP MY FAMILY, THROUGH EVERYTHING. I COULD NOT HAVE ABIDED BY MY MOTHER’S WISHES W/O HOSPICE’S HELP AND I COULD NOT HAVE MADE IT THROUGH THE LAST MINUTES, W/O THEM. I WILL NEVER FORGET THEM.”

 

“HOSPICE WAS A GREAT HELP TO BOTH MY HUSBAND AND ME. HIS PAIN WAS NEVER REALLY CONTROLLED, UNTIL HECAME TO HOSPICE.”