I am not sure you were asking me, but here goes. Our company serves a radius of 50 miles around our city. A case manager (RN in charge) has a patient load of 12-20 (the higher loads are for nursing home patients, because you don't have to drive so far to see several patients.) The size of districts varies, so that nurses who serve rural areas have a larger district because people are more spread out. We try to assign nurses to an area near where they live. One of our chaplains told me he puts 40,000 miles per year on his car. We are paid part of the mileage. I like the driving because I can think and listen to music and am out of the office.

I spent a few years being involved in hospice - as the director of a residential hospice for folks with AIDS. That was in the early 90's before the antiretrovirals came out. It was the most amazing, soul touching job I've ever had. Totally changed my views which had previously been from a critical care and primary care POV.

Since then, I've been involved from the other side when my step father died a few years ago. I'm glad for the experince as well...because we are close to utilizing their services again, this time for Mom. She is insisting, after seeing how it went with her husband, that we use Hospice.

I'm so glad all you Hospice Nurses are there...

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Barbara C. Phillips, NP
NPBusiness.ORG