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Hi and welcome to Be the Flagship with our podcast host Jeff Parsons.

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This is where we tackle the day-to-day talent management challenges you face, particularly

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in hospice and small healthcare organizations.

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And now over to our host.

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Take it away, Jeff.

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Hello and welcome to Be the Flagship.

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I'm your podcast host, Jeff Parsons.

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And in honor of Thanksgiving this week, I'd like to start this episode with a quote.

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And the quote is, to speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant.

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To enact gratitude is generous and noble.

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But to live gratitude is to touch heaven, as by Johannes Gertner.

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And it's so true.

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And speaking of touching heaven, today we have a guest speaker and she's doing God's

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work.

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I am super thrilled to have my beautiful wife joining us today, Darlene Rutledge.

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And she's joining us because this episode is a Thanksgiving episode.

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We all have a lot to be thankful for, so much to be thankful for.

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And the title of this episode is A Hospice Heart in Action, and we have Darlene joining

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us because she is the epitome of a hospice heart in action.

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Darlene has over 30 years of hospice experience.

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She is currently the chief clinical officer in a prominent hospice in Southern California.

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She has dedicated her career and her life to providing the highest quality hospice care

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to her patients and their families.

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So Darlene, thank you so much for joining us today.

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It's a real treat.

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Thanks for the opportunity to be here.

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So Darlene, what led you into a hospice career?

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Well, I was a young single girl in Florida who had been nursing for about eight years.

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And something told me, a calling is what I call it, that I should do hospice work.

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At the time, I didn't even know what hospice was.

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And after some research into seeing exactly what hospice was, I decided that it was way

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too morbid for me as a single girl.

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And I fought that urge off for about six weeks.

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And finally, I gave in to it.

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And I took a job where I would work just when needed for DiEM in a hospice inpatient unit.

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And within three weeks, I was the nursing supervisor in a large hospice inpatient unit.

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And I learned a lot about what hospice was and hospice was not.

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I see.

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And so it sounds like you tried it.

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The per diem was sort of a trial basis.

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And you decided that that's where you needed to be.

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But I mean, you've devoted your career to hospice.

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So I'd really be interested in hearing how you define a hospice heart.

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Well, I will say that I train a lot of managers and directors in interviewing.

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And when I am teaching them how to interview for hospice hires, I teach them to look for

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the hospice heart.

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And one of the questions that will usually bring an answer to this, to our attention,

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is asking why would you like to work at hospice or what brings you to hospice work?

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And oftentimes, whether they're a nurse from the hospital or a nurse from a nursing facility

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or a nurse who's done home health, they will often bring a story to me.

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And I call these stories stepping stones because it's where they're following their heart.

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Something has told them to do this work.

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And for instance, if it's a nurse that works in ICU, they often suffer from moral fatigue,

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meaning they have to do things to patients that physicians order and their heart is just

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not in that type of work.

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It can be futile work.

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Okay.

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Interesting.

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So go ahead.

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So they're looking for another way to take care of those patients.

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And they're thinking that.

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And when they come to hospice and interview, they will share these stories with you about

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having to do things to patients that their heart is not in any longer, about having their

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uncle on hospice and seeing what the hospice nurse does, about working in a nursing home

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and seeing the hospice nurse make her visits and how that made them feel.

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So interesting.

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And I know that when we talk about a hospice heart, you know, a heart, you know, that's

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singular, right?

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That's not plural.

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We're not talking about the team.

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But as it relates to hospice, you know, how important is having the right team in place

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when it comes to a hospice heart?

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It's absolutely something that you must have in place.

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Hospice obviously is not for everyone.

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It's not for every nurse.

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I think hospice nurses are of a different breed, if you will, because we rarely get

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to see patients come in and get well and send them on their way home.

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We get our spiritual satisfaction, if you will, for me, by honoring patients' wishes,

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final wishes.

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And that is what means a great deal to nurses with a hospice heart.

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So do you hire?

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I mean, you alluded earlier to hiring.

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Do you hire for a hospice heart or do you develop it once you've hired a person?

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Usually, they come with a story, honestly.

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They've seen a family member have hospice.

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They were in awe of how the hospice nurse and the hospice team helped them.

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And they want to be a part of that.

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Sometimes it's years since they've seen that, but they still have that desire to do hospice.

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That's remarkable, darling.

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Let's take a quick break.

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At Flagship Talent, we work with our clients to find and place the right talent.

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What do we mean by the right talent?

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We mean we find talent who will commit to your organizational goals and align with your

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values and behavior expectations.

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Talent who will perform to your expectations.

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Talent who will stay and grow with your organization.

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How are we different from our competitors?

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We offer the lowest fee structure in the industry.

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We offer the best talent guarantee in the industry.

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We provide selection and interviewing support to our clients at no additional fee.

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We want to save you money, deliver high quality talent, become an extension of your organization,

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and be your preferred provider of talent acquisition solutions.

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To learn more, contact Jeff Parsons by email at jeff at flagshiptalent.com or by phone

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at 1-800-530-4189, extension 101.

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Okay, we're back with Hospice Chief Clinical Officer and my dear wife, Darlene Rutledge.

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So thinking back on your successful hospice career, Darlene, think about those moments

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in your career that stand out as having a significant impact on a patient or a patient's

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family.

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I know there have been occasions when you and your team have moved mountains to grant

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a last wish or improve the quality of life for a patient or their family.

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I call these demonstrations of a hospice heart when you and your team have gone above and

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beyond to move a mountain to grant a last wish or final wishes.

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Again, I call these demonstrations of a hospice heart.

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So what would you consider to be your top three examples of a hospice heart in action

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and save your number one for last?

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I can guess what your number one's going to be.

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So let's save it for last.

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So just think of the top three, if you can think of those at the top of your mind, and

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let's talk through the first example that you can think of, of when you have witnessed

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or been a part of a hospice heart in action.

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Okay.

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The first one I was intimately involved in, and this was a young patient, probably about

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17, who had come to a major hospital to get a lung transplant because of a chronic illness

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that he had.

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And that was his only opportunity to continue to live longer.

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And while in the hospital waiting for that lung transplant, he contacted a bacteria or

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germ and this disqualified him from ever being able to obtain the lung transplant.

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And I visited this patient directly in his room.

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His room was very, very tiny.

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You had to turn sideways to get around his bed.

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And he was on a ventilator and his mom was there too.

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And she was very, very angry about the fact that he had caught this bug and he now was

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not going to be able to have his transplant and thus he was likely to die.

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Okay.

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I visited the patient directly at the bedside and I spoke directly to him.

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He was very accepting of what was going to happen with him, that he was going to die.

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However, he looked me straight in the eyes because I got down on his level and he said,

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please get me out of here.

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I don't want to die in this tiny room.

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And so I of course asked him about what does the place look like that he wants to die and

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he wanted to play video games with his friends at least one more time.

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And so while I was running a hospice inpatient unit, the nurses there were not trained to

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manage ventilators.

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Okay.

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But I quickly got a respiratory company and we got them trained so that they would be

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comfortable handling his ventilator.

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Negotiated some of his medications to keep him comfortable with the doctor.

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And I went back over two days later because this was the day the ambulance was going to

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pick him up and bring him over to the inpatient unit.

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One of the physicians in the hospital loaned me his video game that he could, the patient

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could use and I went to the room to go in with the transporters or ambulance drivers

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who were moving him.

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And when we came out of the room, the walls were lined with employees wanting to wish

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him well, feeling so badly for him.

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And that was one of the biggest moments of my career was to fight for him.

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I remember the look that he gave me in my eyes and I walked ahead of the stretcher out

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of the hospital with all of these people wishing him well.

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Needless to say, he came to this hospice inpatient unit.

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We were able to get his friends there even before he got there and set up the video set

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so that they could all play video games.

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So he had a full day of playing video games with his friends.

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And we got some help for his mother, I'm sure she was so, so angry and helping her to process

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the grief that was coming.

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And he died about three days later.

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But it was an honor to follow his wish.

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Yeah, and I bet it was just amazing to have the pleasure to witness him playing the video

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games with his friends there in the last few days of his life.

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Absolutely.

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It couldn't have been any better.

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That's amazing, Darlene.

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Thank you for that.

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So I mean, again, that's just an example of finding a way, moving a mountain to grant

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the last wishes of the patient or to help their families along the process.

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So all right, that's number three.

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I can't wait to hear number two.

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So what would be your next example of a hospice heart in action?

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Would be a gentleman who had traveled all over the United States in his motor home,

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which was in a very sad condition.

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And this gentleman was very fond of beaches and happened to be living in a beach town.

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And his last wish after talking with him and meeting with him was to be able to die on

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a beach, on the beach.

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Oh, wow.

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And he had a particular beach, which luckily was where we were.

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Right.

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And we were able to get him down to the beach, even though there were stairs down to the

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beach.

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It was an effort by all of us.

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And get him to the place where he wanted.

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Mind you, every day we had to go and move that dilapidated motor home from parking space

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to parking space because it could not be in the same place for longer than 24 hours.

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Oh, my goodness.

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And the hospice nurses were doing that?

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Yes, we were.

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And we were checking on him down at the beach and spent time with him there.

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We also hired or bought a solar generator so that we could run his oxygen down on the

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beach if he needed it.

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Oh, my goodness.

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Oh.

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Needless to say, this gentleman loved it down there.

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And he was down there about seven days before he died.

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We would obviously take him and feed him and snack.

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But he got to the point where he wasn't able to take those in any longer.

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And he did die within seven days, but down on the beach in his spot.

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I'm certain you had nurses attending to him around the clock.

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Yes, we did.

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So how does that make you feel?

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And how does that make your team feel when they're able to pull something off like that?

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Well, it's these events that really keep hospice nurses going.

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And I really don't think that our feet touch the ground for three to four days after we

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are able to accomplish honoring someone's wishes.

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Can't imagine.

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But that's just amazing.

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Okay.

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So, I can't wait to hear your top example of a hospice heart in action.

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And again, I bet I can guess.

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Is it about the fireman?

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It certainly...

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Excellent.

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I mean, I know this story will make the hair stand up on your arms.

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So please relate that story to our listener, Sterling.

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But first, a break.

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Are you struggling with a sales and marketing team that is out of alignment and is falling

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short in meeting your organizational objectives?

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We can help.

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Flagship Talent Solutions will work with your sales manager and the sales team through a

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coaching approach to ensure goal alignment and sales success.

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To learn more, contact Jeff Parsons by email at jeff at flagshiptalent.com or by phone

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at 1-800-530-4189, ext. 101.

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All right.

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We're back.

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Over to you, darling.

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So this was a retired fire captain who was now terminally ill.

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He was staying in a hospice inpatient unit.

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He had a bad heart, so he had medication going into his arm to keep the rhythm of his heart

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continuing to beat as sufficiently as it could.

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And this particular gentleman wanted... his final wish was to ride one more time on his

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retired fire truck.

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And just to be clear, that fire truck was retired.

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It was out of commission, correct?

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Yes, it was.

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The fire truck was retired as well.

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Okay.

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Wow.

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So what did you do?

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Well, the first thing we did was contacted the fire station to tell them of this particular

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wish.

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And also, I had to figure out how I was going to get him up on the fire truck with a drip

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running, if you will, that was, you know, helping his heart to beat.

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And in addition to this, this fire station team, this group of firemen, were visiting

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him on a regular basis while he was in hospice, correct?

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Yes.

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They were visiting him, and they would bring his retired fire truck when they visited and

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park it outside his window so he could see it.

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Did they turn their sirens on or anything like that?

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Well, we actually got the gentleman up on to the fire truck to take a ride downtown

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with me so that he did get to ride that fire truck.

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And he was just so happy and in awe and, you know, recanted lots of memories when we got

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him back to his bed.

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So how much effort did it take to get the retired fire truck back into commission?

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Well, firemen are just like hospice nurses.

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When they're on a mission to make something happen for somebody, they're going to do it.

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And so they came through for him.

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Wow.

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And I think when you've told me this story before, you mentioned that when the firemen

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would come to visit, as they left, they would turn their sirens on.

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Is that right?

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Yes, so that he could hear the sirens when they leave of his old retired truck.

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And so the final evening that he – they came to visit him, and they had a fairly good

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visit with him.

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He wasn't doing really great, but he was conversing somewhat with them.

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And of course, as all the other nights, when they got ready to leave, they went outside,

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got in the fire truck, and they ran the siren one more time.

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And he died at that moment.

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Oh, wow.

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So we say that he went with them on the fire truck.

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Oh, my goodness.

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Again, every time I hear the way that it ended, it just makes the hair stand up on my arm.

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That's such a special story.

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And I really appreciate you sharing that, Darlene.

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Thank you so much for that.

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You're welcome.

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It's my pleasure.

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Yeah.

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And so, again, this is our Thanksgiving edition or episode.

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And so the purpose, you know, when we think about these things and we think about hospice,

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you know, oftentimes we don't really know, you know, what the hospice nurse will do,

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you know, to grant a last wish is how much dedication they have to their mission.

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It's more of a calling than an employment.

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So they're very special people.

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They're angels.

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So thank you so much for sharing that.

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You are an amazing person, Darlene.

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You really are.

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Tell you what, let's transition as we wrap up to a moment of levity.

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All right.

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So here's, as I mentioned before, this is your opportunity to listen, learn and laugh.

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So here's your opportunity to laugh.

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And I have dragged my wife kicking and screaming into this, but she's willing to participate.

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So Darlene, you ready?

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All right, here we go.

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All right, Darlene, in honor of Thanksgiving, here's your Thanksgiving joke.

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So what was the turkey at?

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Why, excuse me, why was the turkey asked to join a band?

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No idea.

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He could bring his own drumsticks.

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Thank you for listening, everyone, and happy Thanksgiving.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of Be the Flagship with Jeff Parsons.

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We hope you enjoyed it.

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If you did like it, please subscribe and share with others.

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Until next time, take the step to become the flagship in your marketplace.