Most people, especially families didn’t understand palliative care. Everyone tended to think some miracle would happen and we should be treating the patient. As a hospice nurse I found myself getting even closer to the patients. It allowed me to spend more time from a new admission and their family, getting them on the right frame of mind from the beginning. I found myself acting as the social worker, the chaplain, or just someone to lean on. This meant I had to open myself to whatever beliefs the family had, religious or cultural. In my 12 years in hospice, I had heard a lot of stories from other nurses but never did I experience anything myself. The only thing I witnessed but that was explained medically was endearingly termed “Angel Tears.” Patients would also describe angelic visitors or loved ones who’ve recently passed being in the room with them. In those 12 years, I had experienced many natural occurrences but never anything supernatural.
Hospice had taken its toll on me. Some of it was because of the patients I had come close to, and some of it was because the industry.
I hate to use that word “industry” when it comes to people, who are terminal, but it had felt that way to me and I couldn’t deal with it anymore. Needless to say, I had come to an end of that career but still wanted to do contribute to the terminally ill. This is where my story may be more familiar to those with medical equipment repair experience. I had always liked what the Biomedical Equipment Technicians did for our company. Whenever I had a problem with medical device, one call to John, and somebody would be out to my location, before I left the patient and the family. The technician would almost always have a fix for me before I left. I don’t think the technicians liked being out with the patients and their families without the nurse present. They came prepared to handle almost any problem right on the spot, sometimes with a spare medical device to swap out the broken one. It gave them an immediate sense of gratification and I bet they went home feeling great. I wanted that for a change so I looked into schools to train me on Biomedical Equipment Technology. I found several good schools with great reviews from previous students.