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What Does a Hospice Nurse Do?

Hospice nursing is a specialty that allows nurses to provide care in a different way from most other specialties. A hospice nurse cares for patients who are at the end of their life, helping them through their final days, weeks, or months.

Hospice nursing and palliative care nursing are similar, but in hospice care there is no treatment to prolong life. Hospice nursing involves helping patients--and their families--in either a stand-alone facility, a unit in a hospital, or at home.

Hospice nurses may look after patients with terminal cancer, AIDS, heart disease, ALS, or any other fatal disease.

Education & Training Required to Become a Hospice Nurse

Hospice nurses must be registered nurses (RNs), and most have earned their bachelor's degree in nursing (BSN). As well, hospice nurses must complete hospice nursing degree programs or certification. You can obtain a degree in hospice nursing at a traditional university or you can work on an online degree program.

The National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses (NBCHPN) offers certification for hospice nursing. They have five levels of certification, and certifications are valid for four years.

Typical Characteristics of a Hospice Nurse

When you work in hospice nursing, you are not helping someone get better. You are helping them live their last days as comfortably and as free of pain as possible.

Hospice nurses have to be empathetic and sensitive to the patient's and family's needs in the time there is left. If you work in home health hospice, you must be able to work closely with the patient and the family, offering the support and care that each individual needs.

High Demand for Hospice Nurses

Hospice nursing is done for all ages, from children to seniors. There is an ever increasing need for hospice nursing because people are living longer and dying of more chronic diseases than ever before.

There is also now a greater understanding that allowing people to die of terminal diseases is not failing--and that health care professionals can make a difference in the end-of-life stage.

Salaries for RNs vary across the United States, but in 2008 the median annual salary was $62,450, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.