Supporting the Care Team

By Debbie Shaffer
Care team leader

Debbie Shaffer

Patient care has changed for me in the past five years. I transitioned from providing care to our patients in their homes as a registered nurse (RN) to managing one of our home-based care teams.

Now my main contact with patients and families is via phone. I love putting a face with a voice on the phone and hearing families talk about the care they’re receiving and connections they’re making with our staff. I also love it when I make home visits. Interacting one-on-one with patients and their families is truly an honor. It reminds me how precious and unique our work is. 

I believe that everyone on our team has the best interests of the patients at heart and want to serve others. Recently, it has been raining fiercely, but no one has complained that the weather has interfered with doing their jobs. They just do it because they want to help others.

My way of serving patients now is to provide support, understanding, compassion and guidance to our team. I think that if the team is well taken care of then the patients on the team are well cared for. 

Improving Quality of Life

By Donald Simmler
Suncoast Hospice physician

Dr. Donald Simmler

As a Suncoast Hospice physician, I work with our care teams and community physicians doing home care. Most people wish to remain at home when they're dying. It's a closer, more personal connection and a privilege to be invited into people’s homes to care for them.

I witness how patients and their families deal with the difficulties of day-to-day living, handling things as best as they can. They've been given a life-altering message, “It’s time to consider hospice.” They may be uneasy – feeling angry, frightened, distressed, skeptical and distrusting. They may have misconceptions about what we do.

Each patient and family is unique. My care starts with understanding the histories of our patients and their families, where they are now and what their hopes are.

At Suncoast Hospice, patient and family respect comes first. Patients’ and families’ care decisions and wishes always need to be respected. I assist our remarkable care teams with easing distressing symptoms, improving functionality, managing medications and offering recommendations that may improve the well-being of our patients. Our goals are to help people live the best way they can for as long as their sickness allows and, when we no longer can help in this way and as time becomes very limited, we provide more intense support and comfort.

I stand with our whole Suncoast Hospice community, including our extended support staff and wonderful volunteers, as we together help those who are dying and their families. We care for them. We care with them. We walk beside them. We cry with them.