Hospice / Palliative Care Nurse – Career and Education Profile

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Not every disease can be cured. As a hospice or palliative care nurse, you’ll work with patients who are dying to provide the highest quality of live possible.

Job Responsibilities

Hospice nurses, also called palliative care nurses, work to ensure that a patient is as comfortable as possible. At this point, the patient is no longer treated, but is instead offered help with pain management. Your tasks may also include providing companionship, helping patients work with lawyers to prepare wills and otherwise prepare their estates, assisting mental health doctors who help patients deal with fear and depression, and more. You could work as a home health care nurse in this field for patients who are able to live out their lives at home or you could work in a hospice facility, which provides round-the-clock care for patients as they near death.

Salary and Career Options

Hospice nurses make around $50,000 annually, according to reports, but this figure depends on a number of factors including your location, your level of education, and whether you are a home health care nurse or work at a hospice facility. You can also make more money by specializing in a certain kind of illness, as some facilities are specifically set up to help patients who are all dealing with the same medical condition.

Educational Requirements

As a hospice LPN, you’re only required to go through a short program to earn certification, but you can make more money and work in better jobs if you go back to school to earn an associate of science in nursing or a bachelor of science in nursing. The hospice field is also a great place for nurse practitioners, a type of advanced practice nurse that requires you to have at least a master’s degree. As an RN with experience working in this field, you can choose to seek certification from the National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses if you wish.

LPN to RN College Programs

While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.

Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road.

The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees.

Other Nursing Degrees

Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school.

Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs.

Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school.

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