Hi and welcome to Be the Flagship with our podcast host Jeff Parsons.
This is where we tackle the day-to-day talent management challenges you face, particularly
in hospice and small healthcare organizations.
And now over to our host.
Take it away, Jeff.
Hello and welcome to Be the Flagship.
I'm your podcast host, Jeff Parsons.
And in honor of Thanksgiving this week, I'd like to start this episode with a quote.
And the quote is, to speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant.
To enact gratitude is generous and noble.
But to live gratitude is to touch heaven, as by Johannes Gertner.
And it's so true.
And speaking of touching heaven, today we have a guest speaker and she's doing God's
work.
I am super thrilled to have my beautiful wife joining us today, Darlene Rutledge.
And she's joining us because this episode is a Thanksgiving episode.
We all have a lot to be thankful for, so much to be thankful for.
And the title of this episode is A Hospice Heart in Action, and we have Darlene joining
us because she is the epitome of a hospice heart in action.
Darlene has over 30 years of hospice experience.
She is currently the chief clinical officer in a prominent hospice in Southern California.
She has dedicated her career and her life to providing the highest quality hospice care
to her patients and their families.
So Darlene, thank you so much for joining us today.
It's a real treat.
Thanks for the opportunity to be here.
So Darlene, what led you into a hospice career?
Well, I was a young single girl in Florida who had been nursing for about eight years.
And something told me, a calling is what I call it, that I should do hospice work.
At the time, I didn't even know what hospice was.
And after some research into seeing exactly what hospice was, I decided that it was way
too morbid for me as a single girl.
And I fought that urge off for about six weeks.
And finally, I gave in to it.
And I took a job where I would work just when needed for DiEM in a hospice inpatient unit.
And within three weeks, I was the nursing supervisor in a large hospice inpatient unit.
And I learned a lot about what hospice was and hospice was not.
I see.
And so it sounds like you tried it.
The per diem was sort of a trial basis.
And you decided that that's where you needed to be.
But I mean, you've devoted your career to hospice.
So I'd really be interested in hearing how you define a hospice heart.
Well, I will say that I train a lot of managers and directors in interviewing.
And when I am teaching them how to interview for hospice hires, I teach them to look for
the hospice heart.
And one of the questions that will usually bring an answer to this, to our attention,
is asking why would you like to work at hospice or what brings you to hospice work?
And oftentimes, whether they're a nurse from the hospital or a nurse from a nursing facility
or a nurse who's done home health, they will often bring a story to me.
And I call these stories stepping stones because it's where they're following their heart.
Something has told them to do this work.
And for instance, if it's a nurse that works in ICU, they often suffer from moral fatigue,
meaning they have to do things to patients that physicians order and their heart is just
not in that type of work.
It can be futile work.
Okay.
Interesting.
So go ahead.
So they're looking for another way to take care of those patients.
And they're thinking that.
And when they come to hospice and interview, they will share these stories with you about
having to do things to patients that their heart is not in any longer, about having their
uncle on hospice and seeing what the hospice nurse does, about working in a nursing home
and seeing the hospice nurse make her visits and how that made them feel.
So interesting.
And I know that when we talk about a hospice heart, you know, a heart, you know, that's
singular, right?
That's not plural.
We're not talking about the team.
But as it relates to hospice, you know, how important is having the right team in place
when it comes to a hospice heart?
It's absolutely something that you must have in place.
Hospice obviously is not for everyone.
It's not for every nurse.
I think hospice nurses are of a different breed, if you will, because we rarely get
to see patients come in and get well and send them on their way home.
We get our spiritual satisfaction, if you will, for me, by honoring patients' wishes,
final wishes.
And that is what means a great deal to nurses with a hospice heart.
So do you hire?
I mean, you alluded earlier to hiring.
Do you hire for a hospice heart or do you develop it once you've hired a person?
Usually, they come with a story, honestly.
They've seen a family member have hospice.
They were in awe of how the hospice nurse and the hospice team helped them.
And they want to be a part of that.
Sometimes it's years since they've seen that, but they still have that desire to do hospice.
That's remarkable, darling.
Let's take a quick break.
At Flagship Talent, we work with our clients to find and place the right talent.
What do we mean by the right talent?
We mean we find talent who will commit to your organizational goals and align with your
values and behavior expectations.
Talent who will perform to your expectations.
Talent who will stay and grow with your organization.
How are we different from our competitors?
We offer the lowest fee structure in the industry.
We offer the best talent guarantee in the industry.
We provide selection and interviewing support to our clients at no additional fee.
We want to save you money, deliver high quality talent, become an extension of your organization,
and be your preferred provider of talent acquisition solutions.
To learn more, contact Jeff Parsons by email at jeff at flagshiptalent.com or by phone
at 1-800-530-4189, extension 101.
Okay, we're back with Hospice Chief Clinical Officer and my dear wife, Darlene Rutledge.
So thinking back on your successful hospice career, Darlene, think about those moments
in your career that stand out as having a significant impact on a patient or a patient's
family.
I know there have been occasions when you and your team have moved mountains to grant
a last wish or improve the quality of life for a patient or their family.
I call these demonstrations of a hospice heart when you and your team have gone above and
beyond to move a mountain to grant a last wish or final wishes.
Again, I call these demonstrations of a hospice heart.
So what would you consider to be your top three examples of a hospice heart in action
and save your number one for last?
I can guess what your number one's going to be.
So let's save it for last.
So just think of the top three, if you can think of those at the top of your mind, and
let's talk through the first example that you can think of, of when you have witnessed
or been a part of a hospice heart in action.
Okay.
The first one I was intimately involved in, and this was a young patient, probably about
17, who had come to a major hospital to get a lung transplant because of a chronic illness
that he had.
And that was his only opportunity to continue to live longer.
And while in the hospital waiting for that lung transplant, he contacted a bacteria or
germ and this disqualified him from ever being able to obtain the lung transplant.
And I visited this patient directly in his room.
His room was very, very tiny.
You had to turn sideways to get around his bed.
And he was on a ventilator and his mom was there too.
And she was very, very angry about the fact that he had caught this bug and he now was
not going to be able to have his transplant and thus he was likely to die.
Okay.
I visited the patient directly at the bedside and I spoke directly to him.
He was very accepting of what was going to happen with him, that he was going to die.
However, he looked me straight in the eyes because I got down on his level and he said,
please get me out of here.
I don't want to die in this tiny room.
And so I of course asked him about what does the place look like that he wants to die and
he wanted to play video games with his friends at least one more time.
And so while I was running a hospice inpatient unit, the nurses there were not trained to
manage ventilators.
Okay.
But I quickly got a respiratory company and we got them trained so that they would be
comfortable handling his ventilator.
Negotiated some of his medications to keep him comfortable with the doctor.
And I went back over two days later because this was the day the ambulance was going to
pick him up and bring him over to the inpatient unit.
One of the physicians in the hospital loaned me his video game that he could, the patient
could use and I went to the room to go in with the transporters or ambulance drivers
who were moving him.
And when we came out of the room, the walls were lined with employees wanting to wish
him well, feeling so badly for him.
And that was one of the biggest moments of my career was to fight for him.
I remember the look that he gave me in my eyes and I walked ahead of the stretcher out
of the hospital with all of these people wishing him well.
Needless to say, he came to this hospice inpatient unit.
We were able to get his friends there even before he got there and set up the video set
so that they could all play video games.
So he had a full day of playing video games with his friends.
And we got some help for his mother, I'm sure she was so, so angry and helping her to process
the grief that was coming.
And he died about three days later.
But it was an honor to follow his wish.
Yeah, and I bet it was just amazing to have the pleasure to witness him playing the video
games with his friends there in the last few days of his life.
Absolutely.
It couldn't have been any better.
That's amazing, Darlene.
Thank you for that.
So I mean, again, that's just an example of finding a way, moving a mountain to grant
the last wishes of the patient or to help their families along the process.
So all right, that's number three.
I can't wait to hear number two.
So what would be your next example of a hospice heart in action?
Would be a gentleman who had traveled all over the United States in his motor home,
which was in a very sad condition.
And this gentleman was very fond of beaches and happened to be living in a beach town.
And his last wish after talking with him and meeting with him was to be able to die on
a beach, on the beach.
Oh, wow.
And he had a particular beach, which luckily was where we were.
Right.
And we were able to get him down to the beach, even though there were stairs down to the
beach.
It was an effort by all of us.
And get him to the place where he wanted.
Mind you, every day we had to go and move that dilapidated motor home from parking space
to parking space because it could not be in the same place for longer than 24 hours.
Oh, my goodness.
And the hospice nurses were doing that?
Yes, we were.
And we were checking on him down at the beach and spent time with him there.
We also hired or bought a solar generator so that we could run his oxygen down on the
beach if he needed it.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh.
Needless to say, this gentleman loved it down there.
And he was down there about seven days before he died.
We would obviously take him and feed him and snack.
But he got to the point where he wasn't able to take those in any longer.
And he did die within seven days, but down on the beach in his spot.
I'm certain you had nurses attending to him around the clock.
Yes, we did.
So how does that make you feel?
And how does that make your team feel when they're able to pull something off like that?
Well, it's these events that really keep hospice nurses going.
And I really don't think that our feet touch the ground for three to four days after we
are able to accomplish honoring someone's wishes.
Can't imagine.
But that's just amazing.
Okay.
So, I can't wait to hear your top example of a hospice heart in action.
And again, I bet I can guess.
Is it about the fireman?
It certainly...
Excellent.
I mean, I know this story will make the hair stand up on your arms.
So please relate that story to our listener, Sterling.
But first, a break.
Are you struggling with a sales and marketing team that is out of alignment and is falling
short in meeting your organizational objectives?
We can help.
Flagship Talent Solutions will work with your sales manager and the sales team through a
coaching approach to ensure goal alignment and sales success.
To learn more, contact Jeff Parsons by email at jeff at flagshiptalent.com or by phone
at 1-800-530-4189, ext. 101.
All right.
We're back.
Over to you, darling.
So this was a retired fire captain who was now terminally ill.
He was staying in a hospice inpatient unit.
He had a bad heart, so he had medication going into his arm to keep the rhythm of his heart
continuing to beat as sufficiently as it could.
And this particular gentleman wanted... his final wish was to ride one more time on his
retired fire truck.
And just to be clear, that fire truck was retired.
It was out of commission, correct?
Yes, it was.
The fire truck was retired as well.
Okay.
Wow.
So what did you do?
Well, the first thing we did was contacted the fire station to tell them of this particular
wish.
And also, I had to figure out how I was going to get him up on the fire truck with a drip
running, if you will, that was, you know, helping his heart to beat.
And in addition to this, this fire station team, this group of firemen, were visiting
him on a regular basis while he was in hospice, correct?
Yes.
They were visiting him, and they would bring his retired fire truck when they visited and
park it outside his window so he could see it.
Did they turn their sirens on or anything like that?
Well, we actually got the gentleman up on to the fire truck to take a ride downtown
with me so that he did get to ride that fire truck.
And he was just so happy and in awe and, you know, recanted lots of memories when we got
him back to his bed.
So how much effort did it take to get the retired fire truck back into commission?
Well, firemen are just like hospice nurses.
When they're on a mission to make something happen for somebody, they're going to do it.
And so they came through for him.
Wow.
And I think when you've told me this story before, you mentioned that when the firemen
would come to visit, as they left, they would turn their sirens on.
Is that right?
Yes, so that he could hear the sirens when they leave of his old retired truck.
And so the final evening that he – they came to visit him, and they had a fairly good
visit with him.
He wasn't doing really great, but he was conversing somewhat with them.
And of course, as all the other nights, when they got ready to leave, they went outside,
got in the fire truck, and they ran the siren one more time.
And he died at that moment.
Oh, wow.
So we say that he went with them on the fire truck.
Oh, my goodness.
Again, every time I hear the way that it ended, it just makes the hair stand up on my arm.
That's such a special story.
And I really appreciate you sharing that, Darlene.
Thank you so much for that.
You're welcome.
It's my pleasure.
Yeah.
And so, again, this is our Thanksgiving edition or episode.
And so the purpose, you know, when we think about these things and we think about hospice,
you know, oftentimes we don't really know, you know, what the hospice nurse will do,
you know, to grant a last wish is how much dedication they have to their mission.
It's more of a calling than an employment.
So they're very special people.
They're angels.
So thank you so much for sharing that.
You are an amazing person, Darlene.
You really are.
Tell you what, let's transition as we wrap up to a moment of levity.
All right.
So here's, as I mentioned before, this is your opportunity to listen, learn and laugh.
So here's your opportunity to laugh.
And I have dragged my wife kicking and screaming into this, but she's willing to participate.
So Darlene, you ready?
All right, here we go.
All right, Darlene, in honor of Thanksgiving, here's your Thanksgiving joke.
So what was the turkey at?
Why, excuse me, why was the turkey asked to join a band?
No idea.
He could bring his own drumsticks.
Thank you for listening, everyone, and happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Be the Flagship with Jeff Parsons.
We hope you enjoyed it.
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Until next time, take the step to become the flagship in your marketplace.