‘You’re The One They Wait For’
Jessica Patino is a registered nurse with VITAS Healthcare in Palm Beach County. She brings hospice services to patients near the end of life wherever they live: the home of a family member, an apartment, a nursing facility or an assisted living community.
Jessica drives from place to place, checking in with family members, talking to patients, taking vital signs, and getting to know everyone. It’s just what she wanted to do when she was 19 and working as a patient-care technician in a Brooklyn hospital.
Jessica thought she wanted to be a physician until she realized it was the nurse who gave the most hands-on, intimate care. The nurse was the patient advocate and had the time to get to know each one. Jessica switched gears and became an RN.
Her grandmother became a hospice patient in New York, and Jessica took care of her. She watched gratefully as a hospice doctor and nurse came to their home and made her grandmother comfortable. “As her caregiver,” Jessica admits, “I needed all the help I could get.”
She moved to Florida after her grandmother’s death. One morning at a coffee shop, she met a group of VITAS representatives and was handed a business card. She kept it for three years before calling, applying for a job and getting the interview.
“They were willing to train me,” she says. “I learned about hospice: the time you spend with a patient, the patience you need. Hospice nursing is more personal. Your compassion increases when you see your patients every week. You want to be sure they get what they need. And you’re the one they wait for.”
Jessica has been a VITAS nurse for three years now. With every new patient, she says, she walks into a stressful situation. She introduces herself and begins to talk. She explains the goal of hospice, their loved one’s specific disease process, her goal as the RN, the symptoms the family can expect, what the patient’s decline will look like, and how the team will manage symptoms and ensure the patient’s comfort.
Finally, she assures them that they will be informed every step of the way, and it will all be okay. By the time she leaves, the family has some relief; a support system is only a phone call away.
“It’s not easy,” Jessica acknowle dges. “Some families need constant reassurance.”
And sometimes it doesn’t get done in 40 hours. Jessica may reach out to a doctor after her shift is done or answer an email. “And your mind is thinking of the 101 things you have to do tomorrow,” says this valuable VITAS nurse. “But it’s simple: I am hoping to give my patients the care my grandmother received. I am paying back.”
‘I am hoping to give my patients the care my grandmother received. I am paying back.’