Meet Patricia (Pat) Hendrick, a registered nurse and one of many frontline heroes at United Hospice. Pat has been with United Hospice for two years, but has over 40 years of nursing experience.
Before joining us, Pat worked at Nyack Hospital and Dobbs Ferry Hospital. Much of her experience is in med-surg, providing care in hospital units for patients who are acutely ill with a wide variety of medical issues or are recovering from surgery. This experience included her role as Director of Med-Surg and ER at Dobbs Ferry.
Pat decided to become a hospice nurse when her daughter, a hospice night nurse at United Hospice, suggested she make the move.
On the differences between med-surg and hospice care, Pat said “It’s nice that people have a choice to use hospice and stay home. Hospice patients don’t want to go to the hospital. With hospice, they can stay at home and be with their loved ones.”
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Pat, both professionally and personally. Pat, like many frontline medical professionals, has found the current situation overwhelming.
“You can’t come home and leave (the pandemic) at the door. With the media constantly talking about it and being fearful to bring COVID home to my loved ones, it’s 24 hours a day.”
Pat cleans all the time, both at work and home, but understandably the concern of becoming infected or exposing patients is ever-present. She did, however, get to enjoy a week’s respite recently, taking some brief time away to clear her head, and says she is happy to be healthy every day.
Front line advice from Pat: “Please be so very careful, follow CDC guidelines, and ensure you are cleaning everything you touch all the time!”