When a patient is terminally ill or opts to live the rest of their life comfortably without additional treatment, he or she may choose to enter professional hospice care. Those who provide this specialized kind of care focus strongly on providing comfort and compassion as well as expert medical care and health monitoring.

If you’re considering a career in hospice care, there are a number of different roles you can potentially play. Here, we’ll discuss a variety of different careers you can have with training as a certified nurse aide or home health aide.

Home Hospice Care

As the name suggests, home hospice care involves taking care of a patient in the comfort of his or her own home. Not all patients are considered suitable for home care; those with extreme symptoms that are considered difficult to control outside of a medical facility are typically not placed in a home care setting.

A home health aide may be placed with the patient, or he or she may be visited by a registered nurse on an occasional basis. This kind of career is a perfect option for those who find it most fulfilling to develop close personal relationships with patients, and who don’t mind working with the same individuals regularly.

Inpatient Hospice Care

When a patient’s health is too poor to be cared for at home, he or she is usually placed in inpatient care at a hospice facility. There, a team of doctors, nurses, and administrative staff members work together to provide comfortable, professional care to the patient as well as his or her visiting friends and family. This is one of the most common choices of hospice care careers and provides an opportunity to work with a variety of patients on a regular basis.

Continuous Nursing Care

Continuous nursing care is just what it sounds like: around-the-clock medical care and monitoring provided by a nurse who stays in the patient’s home 24/7 during the hospice period. Similar to home hospice care, continuous nursing care is best suited to those who are interested in building personal relationships with their patients. Depending on the length of the hospice care period, the caregiver-patient relationship can be especially strong, so it’s important to make sure that you’re emotionally prepared for the depth of this career.

Respite Care

Respite care is a sort of  “backup care” for when regular caregivers—often the patient’s loved ones—need a break or cannot temporarily provide care. Depending on what the patient and his or her family prefer, respite care may take place either in the patient’s home or in an inpatient hospice facility. Respite care can be provided for up a maximum of five days in a facility before the patient must be moved back home, per Medicare regulations. This is something many hospice nurses find themselves doing on occasion throughout their career.

Train for a Fulfilling Hospice Care Career at ABC Training Center

No matter what kind of hospice career you’re interested in pursuing, you can get the professional medical training you need to get started in your dream job. With our convenient certified nurse aide and home health aide training in NYC, you can get an affordable nursing education in just three to eight weeks!

To learn more about our training programs or get started with your enrollment, contact us today at (718) 618-5589.