When Deena McDougal’s mother was dying at a hospital, it seemed like the doctors and nurses didn’t want to talk about it.
“Being a nurse, I knew that my mom was going through the dying process,” McDougal said. “To have a whole other healthcare team not provide that information was difficult for me.”
McDougal has been a nurse in Juneau for 15 years. She’s worked in the emergency room and in surgery clinics. Now, she’s one of about 25 staff in Bartlett Regional Hospital’s new home health and hospice department.
In her new role, she talks to families candidly about what to expect when their loved one dies, and how they can best manage pain and other symptoms in the meantime.
“It’s going to happen to all of us, and it’s ok,” she said. “I really enjoy that we just talk about it — it’s real, it’s not hidden, and it’s accepted by everyone who’s involved.”
Bartlett started treating home health and hospice patients last month. It’s the first time those services have been available since Catholic Community Service stopped providing them last fall.
“It was felt in the community, it was felt in the hospital, it was felt by the clinics,” said Amanda Williams, Bartlett’s home health clinical manager. “It’s definitely a service that’s needed.”
The home health program provides intermittent in-home care for people recovering from an illness or surgery. That care can include help from nurses, physical therapists, home health aids and social workers.
Hospice is for patients with a life expectancy of six months or less. Nurses can help manage pain and other symptoms, and chaplains can provide spiritual support.
Heather Richter, the clinical manager for the hospice program, said the goal is to support both the patient and their family or other caregivers.
“As a nurse, your first instinct is to fix something that’s wrong,” Richter said. In hospice, she said, staff ask themselves, “Is the patient comfortable? Is the family comfortable with what’s happening to the patient? How can we make this the most peaceful transition?”
Staff are treating four home health patients and four hospice patients as of Friday, according to hospital spokesperson Erin Hardin. Since they started seeing patients last month, one hospice patient has passed away.
“It was a beautiful passing – what the patient wished for verbally in the beginning,” Richter said. “And the family could not have been more grateful and appreciative.”
Bartlett is hiring an occupational therapist and physical therapist for the home health program and a chaplain for the hospice program.
“Right now, we’re supported by the Bartlett therapy staff, but we can already see the big need that we’re going to have,” Williams said.
The hospital raised more than $18,000 for the new program at a fundraiser on Thursday. That money will help pay for training, equipment and other costs as the program brings on more patients.
