How hard is it to be an Admissions Coordinator in Healthcare/Hospice?

Question

I've just accepted a position as an admissions coordinator for a Hospice Care company and was just wondering how difficult of a job it is. The pay/benefits package is fantastic but I'm concerned as to what exactly I'm getting myself into besides the obvious job description and day to day tasks I've been told about.

Answer 1

Working in hospice can be an emotional experience. Very few workers that I have met with hospice care, whether they are clinicians (nurses, etc.) or administrative staff can be described as anything other than dedicated. It takes compassion, comfort with dying and a desire to help make a person's death peaceful as possible in this field, and you have to be reassuring and care for the patients' family reactions, as well.

You will encounter sorrow in this job. Be ready to deal with it emotionally, and to let your care for the people who enter your hospice shine through.

Answer 2

I think the most difficult issue many people have is understanding the full idea of hospice. I even know nurses who are unable to accept the concepts and cannot work with the ideas of helping someone have a comfortable, dignified death process. The patients are sometimes not sure of their own decisions and the families frequently are disagreeing among themselves. Those issues will impact on the admissions process.

It takes commitment to the concept of hospice and the idea that everyone deserves to be able to die in comfort with dignity and not be put through the requirements of the life saving routines normal to our hospital settings. If you are ready for that you will be fine.

Answer 3

I would love to have your new job, just because I like to work in that area. I think the hardest part is having to turn someone down who really needs your services.