The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care. To see this year’s future leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Shannon Becher, vice president of clinical operations for Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED), has been named a 2021 Future Leader by Hospice News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Becher spoke with Hospice News to talk about her career trajectory and the ways the industry is evolving.
What drew you to the hospice field?
The funny thing is that, many years ago when I was doing clinicals, I had an experience doing a ride along with a hospice nurse. It wasn’t a great experience, right? I thought that hospice nursing would be something I never wanted to do. I worked in intensive care units and the emergency department, and ended up going into home health after several years working in hospitals.
I saw some home health patients that really could have used more of a holistic approach. That drew me to hospice. I then had several family members who had entered hospice, my grandfather in particular. Hospice allowed him to be home with my grandmother for the time that he had left. I just got to see and fall in love with that side of nursing.
I love the fact that we take care of the whole family, both spiritually, physically and emotionally. That was really what drew me to hospice.
What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned since starting to work in hospice?
Sometimes in the health care system we tend to forget that our patients are more than their disease. That is why I love hospice so much; we are focused on quality of life.
Generally in health care we focus so much on curative treatments, that the quality of life piece is overlooked. To be able to be there and make that transition smoother with the patient and family is a real honor. I think that was a lesson that I learned as a nurse. Coming out of the hospital experience, we focus so much on that curative piece. Let’s fix the disease. We didn’t focus on the quality of life. So that’s that’s another reason why hospice has my heart.
If you could change one thing with an eye towards the future of hospice, what would it be?
I wish that when physicians go through their education, more time could be spent on the benefits of hospice. I still feel like there’s a big gap there on what hospice can really do. There’s a knowledge deficit there between our providers in other settings sometimes. So I wish we could focus and get a little bit more involved in the medical community.
When you look ahead to 2022, what do you foresee as being different about the hospice industry?
I think we have a real chance to move more care into the home. Unfortunately with COVID, hospitals are full. Folks are not getting to go in and see their primary care physicians like they normally would. So we’re getting patients that are a little bit further along in their disease process.
The future I see is really developing a more of an inpatient unit at their home, and being able to provide everything that a patient would typically get in a hospital setting in the home. I think COVID has taught us how much we can do remotely using our virtual capabilities, but also how much we can do in the home to keep patients out of the hospital.
In the long term, how would you describe the future of hospice?
Home health and hospice are becoming more and more accepted. It’s going to grow in terms of market share, and you’ve got the aging baby boomer generation. We’re gonna see it really flourish and really grow.
I think that’s due in part to our national hospice and palliative care organizations who have been really advocating for quality versus quantity. We’re able to see how much more we can do at home, with the patients’ loved ones at their side.
If you could look back to your first day working in the industry and give yourself any advice, what would it be and why?
Don’t be afraid to voice your ideas. Don’t be afraid to challenge the way things are. I started out as an [registered nurse] case manager at the bedside, and then as a manager of clinical practice. I’ve been in just about every aspect of the hospice world. The best ideas from our team come from our nurses at bedside about how we can do things better.
I always try to encourage our team members to speak up. We don’t have hospice down 100%. Every patient is different. So use your voice. I was a little shy about doing that, and I think most nurses are when they first get started. Voice your ideas.
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