Teen Volunteers Enrich Suncoast Hospice's Mission

(left to right) Teen volunteer coordinator Fabiana Compas
greets new teen volunteers Shekeema Striggles and
 Kirstin Miller at an ice cream social at
our St. Petersburg community service center.

Suncoast Hospice teen volunteers provide invaluable service to our organization and family of programs. Their passion, creativity and commitment carry through in the many activities they’re involved in.

Many teens find joy in visiting our patients and families at their homes, our care centers and various other facilities in Pinellas County. They may hold celebrations, play music or sing at bedsides or make and deliver comfort items for patients. While others like providing support at our community service centers, resale shoppes or events. No matter what roles they take on, the teen volunteers learn, grow and enrich the lives of the people we serve. 

Teen volunteer Carrie Hall volunteers at our 2012
Gift Wrap & Trees of Love event at Tyrone Square Mall.

Are you a mid-Pinellas County teen interested in becoming a Suncoast Hospice teen volunteer? Come learn more at our teen volunteer open house on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at our Clearwater community service center. For more information, call 727-523-3431.

Want to see more about our teen volunteer program? Watch this video of the stories of four teens who have made a difference through their volunteer service.

 

Resale Shoppe Volunteer Gives All-Around Support

John tries out the DVD player.

John Zaccagnini zips around our Suncoast Hospice Resale Shoppe in Clearwater pitching in wherever he can. He answers the phone, tests a DVD player, helps a customer and starts cleaning the break room in preparation for closing.

John has been a dedicated volunteer at the store for four years. He works three days a week and sometimes on his days off doing the mechanical testing of items and practically anything else that needs to be done.

“I’m retired so I’ve got the time. I do everything. One of the greatest things about working here is you never know what’s going to come through those doors,” John said.

One of the beautiful pieces that John admires.

John has a background in hard work and an upbeat attitude. He’s a former, longtime police officer who raised a big family. He also previously served in another volunteer position at a soup kitchen.

Hospice has touched his life. His mother was cared for by a hospice in Massachusetts, which he’s grateful for because she didn’t suffer. He finds satisfaction volunteering for Suncoast Hospice.

“I work with a good bunch of people. I like to help and talk with the people who come in,” he said.

John and fellow volunteer Betty Hertlein sort inventory.

Want to help at at our resale shoppes in Clearwater, St. Petersburg or Tarpon Springs?

Call 727-467-7423 or visit our website to find out about our positions and apply.

POLST Captures End-of-Life Care Choices

By Tracy Christner
Project GRACE executive director



Tracy Christner

Very few of us want a state-of-the-art death. You know the kind – with high-tech, aggressive interventions, such as breathing machines and feeding tubes. These devices may keep you alive technically for weeks, months or even years. However, in some circumstances, such as a heart attack, many of us would want CPR. That's where the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program comes in.

POLST is designed to help individuals in the last stages of life express their wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment. Suncoast Hospice will be the first hospice in Florida to offer POLST to its patients. The pilot will begin this fall after staff has been trained by Project GRACE, the Suncoast Hospice affiliate leading this effort.

Why POLST Is Needed

Just imagine an elderly man (Mr. M) with advanced dementia living in a nursing home.  His living will requests no CPR and no intensive care. He chose his daughter as his healthcare decision maker.

One Friday evening, Mr. M is found unresponsive with an irregular, weak pulse and extremely low blood pressure. The nursing home is unable to reach his daughter and emergency services are called. The paramedics arrive and Mr. M is resuscitated, intubated and transferred to the local hospital. His daughter learns what has happened and demands to know why his living will was not followed.

Completing a living will is often not enough to ensure that your wishes to have or limit medical treatment will be respected. Living wills are general statements of your preferences but need to be carried out through specific medical orders when the need arises. Without special arrangements, medical orders have limited authority outside of the institutions in which they are written. For example, a physician’s orders at the nursing home usually have no authority in the ambulance or hospital.

Mr. M needed a document with medical orders that were followed at each step of his care, from the nursing home to ambulance to emergency department to intensive care unit. That is what POLST does.

How POLST Works

POLST is an approach to end-of-life planning based on thoughtful, facilitated conversations between patients, loved ones and medical providers. It’s designed to ensure that seriously ill patients can choose the treatments they do and do not want based on their values, personal beliefs and current states of health.

POLST’s several advantages include:

• It’s signed by the healthcare provider. There’s no need for interpretation and translation because it’s an immediately actionable medical order.

• It’s easy to follow because it’s on a single-page, standardized form.

• Unlike DNR (do-not-resuscitate) orders, it addresses not just CPR but an entire range of life-sustaining interventions, such as IV fluids, antibiotics, feeding tubes and artificial breathing.

• It’s transportable. It remains in the patient’s chart and travels with the patient. It’s recognized and honored across all treatment settings.

POLST Provides Peace of Mind

We believe POLST to be the best tool to help our patients and their families achieve peace of mind through shared and informed medical decision making.

Just imagine if Mr. M and his physician had completed a POLST form with orders indicating “Do Not Attempt Resuscitation, Comfort Measures Only and Do Not Transfer to Hospital for Life-Sustaining Treatment.” The covering physician and daughter, who agree with the POLST orders, are called. The daughter understands that her father would be transferred to the hospital if his comfort needs cannot be met at the nursing home. The next morning, Mr. M dies in comfort at the nursing home surrounded by his daughter, other family members and the staff who know him well.

For more information on POLST or Project GRACE, visit www.projectgrace.org/POLST or call (727) 536-7364. You may also read more about POLST in Suncoast Hospice’s recent article in Tampa Bay Medical News.

Providing Spiritual Care At End Of Life

The end-of-life journey may touch the body, mind and spirit. Rev. Nina Douglas, a longtime Suncoast Hospice chaplain, helps patients and families at our care centers find spiritual peace by honoring their faith traditions.

Watch Nina discuss her spiritual care in this video.