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Hospice nursing is different from all other specialties. I agree, it takes a special person to do this work. I have seen them in action- hospice doctors, nurses, aides…they are compassionate and think outside the box. It’s refreshing in spite of the caseload.

Hospice is not like the rest of the medical profession. There are some similarities to be sure, but the men and women who provide hospice care are endowed with a special temperament.

Their successes and failures are judged differently than other health care professionals because hospice patients share one thing in common: They are going to die — soon.

There are steps that can be taken to ease pain or bring a smile to someone’s face in the last stages of life. But the moments of joy are interspersed with those of profound sadness. Modern medicine can do nothing to cure hospice patients, nor can anything be done to delay the inevitable.

Death is something all hospice workers know well and they are not immune to the pain and suffering their patients and their families go through.

“The hardest part is when a young person with a family dies,” said home health aide Carol Feltz. “When I think about how they are leaving behind a spouse and young kids, those are the times I cry.”

Nurse Angela Cieslewicz said she has seen dozens of people die in her four-plus years working at Ministry Home Care.

“Sure, all of my patients are going to die, and that could be pretty depressing,” she said. “But for me, it all depends on how you look at it. I can help my patients have the best quality of life for as long as they have life left. I like to look at it that way.”

Hospice care is not for everyone. Volunteer coordinator Lynda Pilot said the nurses who work in hospice are unlike most.

“They like a great deal of autonomy and work best in a setting where they are on their own,” she said. “It is a different kind of work and it requires a special kind of person.”

Hospice workers are drawn to the profession for many reasons, and some of them are personal.

“I tell the people here that I will be working one day and the next day someone will be giving me a bath,” Feltz said. “My mother-in-law had hospice care and after I saw how wonderful they treated her up until the end I knew I wanted to do something like that; I wanted to give back.”

This is a work that follows you home at the end of the day. Leaving it behind is not an option, so you have to learn to live with it.

“I am a hospice nurse, I don’t have two lives. This is not something I can shut off,” Cieslewicz said. “I have three kids and they know I take care of people who are dying. And when my pager goes off they know it’s not a good thing.”

Patients who receive hospice care at Ministry must first decide where they want to die. Care can be provided in assisted living homes, nursing homes or at home.

A team of nurses, home health aides, doctors, therapists and volunteers offer a holistic approach to care for the patient and the family.

It is with the families that Cieslewicz finds the most joy and purpose to her work.

“There are a lot of tears, especially at the end,” she said. “Families realize that they have been fighting over the silliest things for the last 25 years and now it just didn’t matter.

“When I see one person’s eyes light up I don’t need a thank you. When I give someone comfort, when I ease someone’s pain or when I give a family member the courage they need to care for a loved one, that is the thanks I need.”

Ministry accepts patients based on referrals from doctors, families or patients. The typical patient has a life expectancy of six months or less.

Hospice work teaches you to not fear death, but to revere it instead. A hospice also serves as a place to find energy for life.

“Everyone always thinks death is so sad, and it is,” Feltz said. “But after working in hospice for a while I have learned that it is not as sad as I always thought it was. There is something to learn about life from death and hospice teaches you that.”