Hospice Nurse Practitioner Job Description, Duties, and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the hospice nurse practitioner job description, including the duties, tasks, and responsibilities they perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to meet to be hired for the hospice nurse practitioner role.

What Does a Hospice Nurse Practitioner Do?

Hospice nurse practitioners are a group of professionals that are tasked with the responsibility of taking care of terminally ill patients at home. They are caregivers for awaiting-death patients.

Hospice nurse practitioners work as a team. The team is usually led by a senior professional nurse.

The ones designated as nurses treat patients’ illnesses; the chaplains in the group offer support and guidance to the patient and his or her family, while the clerks in the group take care of the medical records of the patients.

Hospice nurses play a key part in the healthcare business. Their job description entails diagnosing, prescribing, and treating illnesses in concert with the main physicians in charge of the patient in question.

Being a hospice nurse practitioner goes way beyond the normal daily duties of a nurse. A hospice nurse practitioner job is more specialized.

They operate in a systematic manner that takes care of the whole gamut of healthcare for terminally ill, death-bound patients.

Hospice nurse practitioners majorly take care of their patient at the patient’s home after a decision has been reached that the patient can no longer receive treatment at the hospital.

Physicians largely depend on the inputs made by hospice nurse practitioners who come in the form of patients’ assessments and re-assessments.

The hospice nurse practitioner work description commonly involves providing the kind of care that is well tailored to the cultural, religious, and social needs of a dying patient.

The job of hospice nurse practitioners usually ends when the patient dies peacefully or gracefully.

Hospice Nurse Practitioner Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Hospice nurse practitioners perform various functions in providing treatment and support to terminally ill patients.

The specific duties, tasks, and responsibilities that usually make up the job description of a hospice nurse practitioner are presented below:

• Manage patient’s health in terms of pains, symptoms, and treatments
• Take care of the patient till he/she dies
• Provide patient’s assessment to the main physicians
• Obtain the necessary equipment needed to take care of a patient at home
• Ensure the availability of medication to a patient
• Create a comprehensive care plan for other professional caregivers to follow
• Provide spiritual support for the patient or the family before and after the death of the patient
• Serve as the communication link between the patient, family, physicians and other caregivers
• Ensure emotional support to patients and their families
• Help to alleviate the suffering of patients who are going through pains, difficulty in breathing, perspiration, and other symptoms through the provision of medication
• Help to properly manage the patient’s health condition instead of calling for an emergency or a transfer to a hospital.

Hospice Nurse Practitioner Requirements – Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge for Success on the Job

When hiring for the hospice nurse practitioner role, employers, HR managers, or recruiters commonly give a set of required skills, abilities, experience, educational background and training, etc. that interested individuals seeking the position should possess to be eligible to access the job.

If you are interested in working as a hospice nurse, here are major requirements you may be expected to meet to be hired for the role:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Nursing
• 5-year experience as a practicing nurse
• Has to be a registered nurse
• A Master’s degree in Hospice and Palliative Nursing will be an added advantage
• Must possess excellent counseling skills
• Must possess great support skills for both patient and family
• Ability to pay attention to detail
• Ability to demonstrate excellent communication skills
• Must possess symptom management skills in order to stabilize a patient
• Should be very strong emotionally and mentally
• Must understand how to provide end-of-life support to the family of a dead patient
• Should possess excellent interpersonal and therapeutic skills
• Must have excellent pain management skills
• Possess ability to work effectively within a team environment
• Able to demonstrate excellent psychological skills
• Possession of physical care skills are highly required
• Must be able to answer questions posed by a patient or a family member explicitly
• Possessing excellent relationship skills is key.

Conclusion

If you are an employer or recruiter looking to hire qualified and competent persons for the role of the hospice nurse practitioner in your organization, you will need to publish a detailed description of the job that reflects the purpose, duties, obligations, objectives, and responsibilities of the position, which the successful candidate will perform.

To write such job description, you can apply the information and the sample hospice nurse work description provided in this post.

This article will also be useful to you if you are interested in becoming a hospice nurse practitioner.

It will help you to learn all you need to know about the career as well as the requirements you need to meet to gain employment.

Did this post increase your knowledge of the duties and responsibilities of hospice nurse practitioners? Please, make a comment in the box below. Do also share your job description if you work in this role.