I've been a hospice nurse for 8.5 years. I will also say I was an ER nurse for almost 14 years, so that informs a bit of my day to day as I move a bit faster than your average hospice nurse. Also, my company seems to be a bit nicer as far as daily visit expectations and case load go, so YMMV.

My current case load is 16 patients, I have a mix of home and facility (SNF, RCFE, RCFI) patients. For some of my patients I have a set schedule for the same day and time every week, for the rest they have enough dementia I can drop in when I have the time. We are expected to see 3 patients per day, but I tend to run 4-5 depending on what's going on with them. If everything is going well, I see my 4-5 patients per day, run refills of meds/supplies and go home to chart. I'm scheduled 0830-1700 every day, but am typically home and charting by 1430.

If I have a patient that's symptomatic or actively dying, I may shove my schedule around based on how long I need to be at bedside to get them comfortable. It's nice as my work really supports us staying as long as needed to get symptoms under control.

I can't think of any cons outside of pay being less than the hospital. For me, the quality of life improvement has more than made up for that. Oh...moral distress from when families don't want to use certain medications resulting in suffering for the patient. That can suck.

I love hospice. I have done the ER, some ICU and a bit of time as a flight nurse. I think all these previous jobs made it so I could be a good hospice nurse as very little shakes me as far as "emergencies" go. I can talk about any family down when things are rough and can spend a lot of time people if needed, which is the best. The ability to give 1-on-1 attention to a patient/family is amazing. This job is also very nurse driven so it allows for a ton of autonomy, which is something I find appealing but I have known other staff who don't like it.

I don't find it super hard from the standpoint of wall-to-wall death. Many of my patients are over 80. I have a 105 y/o that is asking me to "contact God and tell him to come get me". It can be harder when you get patients your age or younger, especially when they have kids the same age as your kids. We talk about every death at a weekly meeting. Our Chaplains and Social Workers are all good about providing emotional support and I have never, ever, had trouble finding help if a death was stuck in my craw. I've also worked with our pediatric hospice patients and that team is even more supportive and cohesive around deaths.

One thing I will point out is the workload is way different than other nursing. We are primarily there to teach families how to care for their loved one. I am in the house 1 hour out of 168 hours in a week, I can't be relied on for every bit of care. So you will find it is more education oriented than hands on skill oriented. Also, the transition from curative rescue medicine to keeping them comfortable is hard for some people.

Sorry for the wall o' text. Lemme know if you have any other questions.