Donna Casey
November 2024
Donna
Casey
,
DNP, MA, RN
Acts Delaware Hospice at Cokesbury Village
Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, St. Francis Hospital & Delaware Hospice
Wilmington
,
DE
United States

 

 

 

There have been three nurses who have applied and accepted careers in hospice after being exposed by Donna. Even students who aren't going into hospice credit Donna for changing their practice.
Donna wrote to me over a year ago. She was concerned that Nursing Students do not get an opportunity to see the difference hospice can make. She proposed a 16 hour intensive clinical in Hospice with the help of Acts Hospice at Cokesbury nursing facility. From her articles in the DNA Reporter, Delaware was well aware of her passion for hospice nursing. However, she has spread this passion to the next generation of nurses. She has been running the clinical intensive in the Community class for nursing at DTCC for a year now. There have been three nurses who have applied and accepted careers in hospice after being exposed by Donna. Even students who aren't going into hospice credit Donna for changing their practice. A graduating student described it like this, "I wish I had had the hospice experience in my LPN program. We have patients in our nursing home on hospice, and after going with Donna, they get much better care from me, and I teach the other LPNs. Now that I know better, I can do better. I am going into a Labor and Delivery nursing position and now I feel much better prepared to assist the dying patient at any age. People don't think about deaths when you are a labor and delivery nurse, but death is there too, and thanks to this experience I am a bit more prepared." This is just one of the many compliments I have heard. I am not sure what recognition category this type of innovation and passion falls under, but Donna has changed some future nurses' attitudes and quality of care for a special population.