The Perfect Job

I'm one of those people who believes that nothing happens by accident. Had I not spent 10 years as a hospice volunteer, I wouldn't have nearly the same perspective I have now on what the patients and families need, on how to dispel their misconceptions of hospice and how to listen effectively. Had I not spent 16 years in a "traditional" business setting, I wouldn't know how unhappy I was in that environment, how much I despised the ethics (or lack thereof) and how easy it was to get caught up in the atmosphere around me, becoming a miserable participant in every intrigue just to "stay in the game." Had I not joined hospice, I wouldn't know how wonderful the people are, how different the focus can be and how much influence it has over my frame of mind, and how satisfying it is to go home every day knowing my contribution means something.

I'm in charge of the complementary therapies program. In addition to managing the day-to-day administrative end of things, I work to expand the program by adding more volunteers in more disciplines, by speaking to civic groups and nursing classes to educate them about the impact of complementary therapies and what they add to traditional medications and care plans, and by doing my fair share of hands-on patient/family/staff care in my own specialty fields of Reiki, Aromatherapy and Reflexology.

Needless to say, misperceptions abound about complementary therapies and what they can and can't do. Oddly enough, my biggest challenge has not been the patients; it hasn't even been the physicians. It's been the nurses. I've spent almost two years now working to gain their trust and, very slowly, I'm making inroads. I've found that the best way to win them over is to involve them personally so I tailor therapeutic essential oil blends to their specific problems: constipation, burns, asthma, headaches, colitis, arthritis. Then I sit back and wait for them to discover that, lo and behold, the essential oils actually do more than smell good. I can talk about them until I'm blue in the face (and I've tried that) but this method is far more convincing.

Well, that's enough for a first-time blog. In the future, I plan to delve into hospice life - the good and the bad, the sad and the irreverent, the spiritual and the political.