© 2024 Springhill Home Health & Hospice
All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved
Text JoinTeam to 97211 to learn more about career opportunities today!
Text JoinTeam to 97211 to learn more about career opportunities today!
We are celebrating nurses this month! Meet Natalie Smith and learn why she has a passion for nursing.
Springhill Home Health and Hospice nurse Natalie Smith shared stories of her nursing career and the successes and joys of her profession.
Four years into her nursing career, Natalie joined the Springhill Home Health and Hospice team. Nine years later, she is still dedicated to the company’s mission of serving patients and their families through hospice.
Natalie said being a hospice nurse means more than just taking care of the physical body of her patients. “Yes, we strive to provide as much physical comfort as possible, but it’s so much more than that. I personally love being able to step in and help a family who may not have felt comfortable or confident that they could provide the care their loved one needed,” she said. “We help support and reassure the family and provide them with the tools they need to adequately care for [a] family member or friend at such a difficult time in their life.”
She said that her ultimate goal with each family that she serves is to help them see end of life as a peaceful memory rather than a stressful event. When a loved one passes, Natalie’s hope is that their family will have peace and comfort from knowing that they fulfilled their family member’s wish to pass at home with their family by their side. “I love being able to provide that encouragement and reassurance,” she said.
Natalie said her very first hospice case management experience served as a guide for the rest of her time as a hospice nurse and made her “fall in love with hospice nursing”. Natalie said, “[My patient had extenuating circumstances] with minimal family support. His symptoms were extremely difficult to manage, and I felt like I spent most of my days with him. He did have a brother to step in and care for him, [but] he was not confident and was very overwhelmed. (I tried not to show it, but so was I!) I must have called our nurse practitioner a dozen times a day, but he was patient with me and educated me on every step [we should take], and [he] reassured me throughout the whole process. I learned just about everything I would ever see in hospice during that time. In the end the caregiver provided amazing care, the patient had a peaceful transition, and the family was at peace. I will never forget that experience. It was the most [stressed] I’ve ever felt, but the lessons I learned have stayed with me.”
What a joy to have nurses in the field who love the profession as Natalie does! Happy Nurses Week to Natalie, our Springhill Home Health and Hospice Nurses, and the nurses around the world who work tirelessly to provide compassionate care for patients and their families.
Springhill Home Health & Hospice – Mobile & Baldwin has been recognized by Strategic Healthcare Programs (SHP) as a “Superior Performer” for achieving an overall caregiver and family satisfaction score that ranked in the top 20% of all eligible SHP clients for the 2022 calendar year.
Springhill Home Health & Hospice is an established, full-service Alabama home health and hospice agency that provides a superior quality of services in a caring manner.