Hospice of West Tennessee

Happy Birthday to CNA Melanie Woods who’s been promoted to “Grandma Melly!” We wish you a Happy Birthday and congrats on your first grandchild, August, who was born in April 💙💙💙

We have been double blessed with two Social Work interns this semester! Help us welcome Natalie Hamilton to our team. She is a student at Union University and she will be graduating with her Bachelors Degree in Social Work in Spring 2025. She chose to become a social worker because she values everyone's unique life experiences, and she wants to use her life experiences to help others navigate through hard times. Natalie was drawn to Hospice because she is passionate about meeting people where they are, and supporting individuals and their families in the final steps in their journey on this Earth. She is looking forward to creating relationships with our patients and their loved ones and helping them find peace and comfort during their final days.

We are so thankful Natalie chose to do her BSW internship with us. We are looking forward to serving our patients and families alongside her. Welcome to the team, Natalie!

We are excited to introduce one of our Social Work interns for the Fall 2024 semester. Meghan Littrell is a student at Union University. She will be graduating in December 2024 with her Bachelor's Degree in Social Work. She chose to major in social work because she has a genuine love for people and helping those who cross her path. Meghan decided to pursue an internship with Hospice of West Tennessee because she felt that God placed it on her heart to work with people experiencing life limiting illnesses and to walk with them through this part of their life journey. She is looking forward to connecting with our patients and their loved ones and supporting them during their journey through Hospice.

Please help us welcome Meghan to our team! We are honored that she chose Hospice of West Tennessee to complete her requirements for her BSW degree. We are looking forward to great things from her!

Happy West Tennessee Healthcare Service Anniversary to Chris Drehman, RN! She celebrated 25 years last week!Thank you, Chris, for your commitment to caring!

We missed celebrating a birthday of our Director, Tara Johnson, RN. She celebrated a birthday on July 28th! We love our Tara! Hope you enjoyed your birthday!!!

Grief is a lot of things. And it looks different for everybody. One thing is certain; however, is we all need SUPPORT! Our Bereavement Coordinator has scheduled a Grief Support Group to meet at our office monthly starting August 6 at 3:00 P.M. An evening meeting option is scheduled for August 20 at 6:00 P.M. Please let your friends and families know who need this resource! Any questions? Call Fania at 731.664.4243.

Grieving is Loneliness and Aloneness I think a big part of grieving is loneliness. Loneliness for our person who has left us but also aloneness in our day to day activities...

Our July employee of the month for Hospice of West Tennessee is Judy Haskins, RN! The criteria for selection of Employee of the Month states “shows the heart of Hospice, goes above and beyond, truly makes a difference in the lives of patients/families, co-workers & community. Benefits of being Employee of the Month Include a designated parking space and a day off during the month of the award. We've had Judy at Hospice of West Tennessee for 22 years. She is a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ nurse! Congrats, Judy! (Hearts Afire article is from 2010).

Happy Birthday today to Hospice of West Tennessee volunteer, Jackie Perrine! 🥳 Ms. Jackie is a retired nurse and she volunteers weekly to sit with a patient while their family has a break! We can't thank you enough for your volunteer efforts! Enjoy your special day!!!

Happy Birthday Wishes to our Hospice of West Tennessee volunteer, Hilary Veras Rose!🥳

Happy Birthday to our Bereavement Coordinator, Fania Amburn!

Happy Birthday to our Hospice Administrative Assistant, Michelle! We hope your birthday is filled with all of your favorite things! 🥳

Today we wish our fabulous Lisa Hawks Phillips , RN a very Happy Birthday! We love and appreciate you each and every day!

106. What is the Role of a Hospice Nurse? - We Talk Health - Official Podcast of West Tennessee Healthcare On this episode of We Talk Health, Lisa Phillips comes in to talk about the role of a hospice nurse. November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and Will asks several questions about hospice nursing.  What exactly is a hospice nur...

Happy Birthday to Hospice of West Tennessee volunteer, Paula Tidwell. 🥳 "About six months into the pandemic my husband of 48 years was very unexpectedly diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. We chose Hospice of West TN for his care. He only lived a week, but we were both highly impressed by the compassionate care and concern of all of the Hospice staff. As I started my new life journey, the Lord led me to volunteer with Hospice of West TN. I hope I can provide compassion and comfort and be a blessing to others who are dealing with a very trying and emotional time in their lives." Paula truly has a servant's heart and is such a blessing to know. We appreciate her volunteer efforts so very much!

Happy Birthday to Hospice of West Tennessee volunteer, Maria Tatman. 🥳 Thank you Maria, for committing your time to Hospice of West Tennessee!

Happy Birthday to our Hospice of West Tennessee's Eddy Koonce, M.D.! 🥳🥳🥳 Dr. Koonce is semi-retired. He fills in for our Medical Director, Stephanie Anderson, M.D. when she is out-of-town. When asked, "Why hospice," Dr Koonce replied, "From my early teens when I first had an exposure to the healing art of medicine as I would accompany my father, who was a practicing Internist here in Jackson, TN, on his hospital rounds, until now I have had a great love and gratitude for the practice of medicine and it’s ability to diagnose and manage disease processes in a positive way to help those afflicted, move toward health, ease suffering, and provide a better quality of life. Hospice philosophy and care is for me a calling that God has, and still continues to prepare me for, by His Grace, to be His presence of healing for our patients and families, as a member of our beautiful hospice team. I am grateful and beyond blessed to have employment doing what I love, living out God’s Divine will in my life!" We are blessed to have him on our team at Hospice of West Tennessee! Enjoy your special day Dr. Koonce!

Happy Birthday to Hospice of West Tennessee volunteer, Susan Neff! 🥳 Susan is a long-time volunteer who assists our team with bereavement phone calls. She says, "Families need support as well. The loved ones I speak with are so appreciative of hospice services. And they almost always mention how much help the bereavement mailouts have helped them with their grief." Susan says volunteering has been such a positive experience for her and she feels that she has grown so much through her experience volunteering with hospice. Thank you, Susan, to sharing your time with our families in their time of grief. Have a wonderful birthday!

Our June employee of the month for Hospice of West Tennessee is Lisa Phillips, RN! The criteria for selection of Employee of the Month states “shows the heart of Hospice, goes above and beyond, truly makes a difference in the lives of patients/families, co-workers & community. Benefits of being Employee of the Month Include a designated parking space and a day off during the month of the award. Way to go, Lisa P!

Celebrating the PRN CNA staff at Hospice of West Tennessee, Demetrius and Alysia! Both ladies are fabulous with their patients. Finishing out CNA week, our leadership provided breakfast! Thank you to Tara and Bobbie for feeding us tis morning! Happy CNA week!

Happy CNA week & birthday blessings to our CNA extaordinaire Tina Morris! Tina takes pride in her work and gives 100% to her patients. We appreciate Tina and are thankful she's chosen Hospice of West Tennessee for the past 32 years. You're one in a million, Tina! Happy Birthday to you 🥳

Celebrating Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) week with Hospice of West Tennessee's Danielle Millbrook! Danielle is such a blessing! She shares, “I’m a mother of 3 adult children who are my absolute world! I love helping people! I’m a faithful member of All Nations Church of God. I enjoy trying different foods.” We are blessed to have Danielle on our team! Thank you 🫶

Introducing the newest addition to our team at Hospice of West Tennessee, Shauna Dance, CNA. She has transferred over to Hospice from Surgery at JMCGH a few weeks ago. Shauna is from Humboldt and has experience with being a caregiver to family members on hospice. She has 5 nephews and 2 teacup yorkie "children." Hospice of West Tennessee is lucky to have Shauna. She has a sweet personality and is very dedicated to providing the best for her patients. Happy CNA week to you, Shauna!

Certified Nursing Assistants are the heart of Hospice of West Tennessee. One of our C.N.A.s, Shirley, celebrated her 50 YEAR service anniversary last month! Shirley is an inspiration to us all. Two words to describe Shirley are dedicated and passionate. Her servant’s heart is my favorite thing about Ms. Shirley! Lots of love and appreciation from all of us at Hospice of West Tennessee!

Hospice of West Tennessee is honoring our CNA's during Certified Nursing Assistants week! Today, we share about our friend, Melanie Woods. Melanie is both a wonderful and resourceful CNA. We have learned so much from her over the years! We are blessed to work with someone who's so selfless and kind. Hospice of West Tennessee has been lucky to have her since 1978!

Shout out to the CNAs at Hospice of West Tennessee- you are the BEST.
“Be a CNA they said. However, what they didn’t say was how to deal with angry and upset patient who’s spitting in my face, scratching my arms to pieces, and hitting me in confusion. Or how to deal with a someone who’s deathly ill screaming for God to take them. Or how hard it is to deal with loneliness during the holidays when they never have any family come see them and they’re crying to you asking you why their family didn’t show up. Or how to juggle so many priorities at one time. Or how to deal with the silent crying in the bathroom from the stress of losing your first patient. Or how to deal with the feeling of defeat after a long shift and wishing you could’ve done so much more.

But I’ll tell you what. Nothing compares to joy you’ll feel when you give a patient an amazing shower and they tell you they love you just because you cleaned them. Or the bittersweet happiness you feel when she grabs you by the hand when they’re almost too weak to eat and just won’t let go of you because your presence is comforting them. Or when he changes from hangry to absolutely happy from one meal just because you were there to help them eat. Or how trusted you feel the first time a patient remembers your name when asking for certain favors. Or how important you feel when their family members ask YOU to do special favors for their loved one because their mom can’t stop talking about you.

Being a CNA is everything but easy. It’s exhausting, hard, emotional, aggravating, fast pace, heartbreaking and sometimes even ugly. But I can guarantee you there’s not another rewarding job such as this. I love my grouchy patients, my happy patients, my needy patients, my sad patients and even the patients who are completely dependent on us for everything because they can’t do anything for themselves. Listening to these stories of their happiest moments, knowing they trust me with that much information is such a blessing and such a good feeling. No matter how hard my day was to deal with, how long it was, how busy it was, how it took me all that day just to get through my shift... I love my job!”
-author unknown (shared)

Grieving the loss of a beloved pet, our patient and his wife had asked if our Hospice of West Tennessee volunteer, Jim Cope, would do a sketch for them. The couple, already dealing with a terminal illness, has been overcome with grief after the loss of their long-time pet companion. This sketch brought tears to their eyes! Thank you, Mr. Cope for your beautiful work. We know the bereaved family is honored to have this sketch!

Happy Birthday today to our hospice volunteer, Jan Stanfill! We are blessed with the BEST volunteers at Hospice of West Tennessee! Thank you, Jan, for choosing our hospice to donate your time and efforts! We appreciat you! Happy Birthday!!! 🥳

Happy Belated Birthday (June 1) wishes to our own Dr. Bethany Lawrence! We are blessed to work alongside our medical director of Palliative Care, Dr. Bethany Lawrence. Originally from Murray, Kentucky, she moved to Jackson, Tennessee in 2004. In Jackson, she has worked with the former Medical Clinic of Jackson and served as medical director of the Health & Healing Clinic. Dr. Lawrence joined the University of Tennessee Health Science Center as professor in 2009 where she remains on staff as adjunct clinical faculty, teaching family practice residents at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. She joined the team at Hospice of West Tennessee in 2019. She has always had a special interest in hospice care. "I feel honored to help relieve their symptoms and face the stress of end-of-life issues alongside them," remarks Dr. Lawrence. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Dr. Peter Lawrence, a local urologist, and her kids as well as reading and playing tennis. Thank you to Dr. Lawrence for your service to our patients at Hospice of West Tennessee! We are blessed to have you on our team.

Grief changes but never goes away. You don't understand this until you've experienced an equal loss. Years later, a smell or a simple thought will bring tears to your eyes. That's normal. Check on your friends who've lost a piece of their heart. Let's normalize empathy for another person suffering!

Don’t stop checking in…

The feeling of missing someone and grieving for them never leaves. We act like everything is fine, and from the outside we probably even look fine, but we are often not fine. We do our best to move through life doing all the normal stuff we’re expected to do, but there is this hidden underlying of ache that never goes away.

When you check in, it says to us, “I see you. You aren’t alone.” And that means everything.

xo
Gabby
www.thehospiceheart.net