About this course
This course puts a new hospice employee on the map of the interdisciplinary group. Part one covers why hospice is organized as a group, the four professional roles 42 CFR 418.56 requires by name, and the designated registered nurse who coordinates care for each patient. Part two covers what binds every discipline together: the individualized written plan of care that all hospice care and services must follow, what it must contain, how often it is reviewed, and what to do when it does not match what the patient needs today - plus what the interdisciplinary group meeting is for and what frontline staff are expected to contribute to it. Part three works through each role in turn: the registered nurse, the hospice aide (both what the aide does and where the aide's scope ends, taught as the four-part test at 418.76(g)(2) rather than as a list of forbidden tasks), the medical social worker, the chaplain and spiritual counselor, the medical director and hospice and attending physicians, the volunteer as a regulated role under 418.78, and bereavement services that continue up to a year after the death. Part four covers the people who are not in the interdisciplinary group meeting but determine whether it works: therapists, schedulers and intake, pharmacy and durable medical equipment, and the facility staff who care for the patient on every other shift. Part five is escalation: what to report, to whom, and how fast, including the two reports that go immediately. Written for hospice aides, nurses, social workers, chaplains, volunteers, schedulers, and office staff. Suitable for new-hire orientation and annual refresher training.