Hospice Saint John & Sussex
September 12, 2005
By Nicole Zummach
SAINT JOHN, NB // We all know that one day our life will come to an end. However, this knowledge doesn't necessarily mean we are prepared for it when the time comes, especially when facing a terminal illness. One place to turn for support is a hospice, which is defined as a facility or program designed to provide a caring environment for supplying the physical and emotional needs of the terminally ill. But it can offer much more than that, as the staff and volunteers of Hospice Saint John & Sussex repeatedly demonstrate. Their goal is to not only relieve suffering, but also improve the quality of living and dying, and support families to cope during their loved one's illness and in bereavement. Their efforts were recognized in 2004 when, for the first time, the hospice received the Donner Award for Services for Seniors. CharityVillage spoke with
executive director Sandy Johnson about the important role that the hospice plays in the community, what it takes to collaborate successfully and effectively with professionals from different fields, and the significant contributions of volunteers.
CharityVillage: How can success be measured or determined in a hospice environment?
Sandy Johnson: It's very difficult to quantify and measure emotional and spiritual support. It's not a tangible component of end-of-life care. We are not the medical service; we're the support service and it's tough sometimes to measure that. I think the Donner Award has given us the opportunity to be able to quantify that. [The Donner Foundation], as an independent third party, validates what it is we're doing to give us the kind of profile and motivation we need to continue to sell our service here in our community, not only to potential clients but to supporters as well. Because we are 100% funded through donations, fundraising is a daily part of hospice work, in addition to providing the quality support that we provide.
CV: What did you learn from the Donner Foundation's evaluation? What area(s) of your organization are you working to improve?
SJ: We learned that we are doing some things very well - strategic management, board governance, and the whole innovation component. We also learned that we need to work on more formalized outcome monitoring, and there are certainly opportunities to enhance our volunteer management services. So, as I said, not only was it good validation of what we are doing well, but it was also tremendously motivating to spend time, energy, and effort on the areas we need to improve. It's almost become a driving force throughout the whole year of operations. It's in the back of your mind that you would like to apply again. We'd like to think we are constantly dedicated to quality improvement but this just adds even more motivation to do that.
CV: You mentioned the opportunity to enhance your volunteer management services. How do you attract appropriate volunteers to your organization and then retain them?
SJ: We've actually never had a problem attracting or retaining volunteers. I think a lot of people experience the death of a loved one in their lives and if you've had the support of a community organization like hospice, sometimes you really are anxious to get involved to try to help others through the journey that you were on, so we are very fortunate. The Donner Award has certainly raised our profile and credibility in the community. People want to be attached to a winning organization. They want to be doing something that is really making a difference in someone's life.
I tell people all the time that I have one of the best jobs in the world because I go to work everyday and it's the little things that I do that make a tremendous difference to people when they need it most. I don't know many jobs where you have the opportunity to do that everyday. Some people say that the work I do must be very sad, and it is sad to watch people suffer, but to know that you might have brought someone a sense of peace or comfort is so rewarding. I think that's one of the reasons we have a really good retention rate with our volunteers. They get back almost as much as they give.
CV: Aside from the volunteers, you also collaborate with professionals from a number of disciplines. What have you learned over the years about making these collaborations and partnerships work?
SJ: It's a challenge. We are partners with our health care professionals - physicians and nurses, both in community and in hospital. We all serve the same patients and families and it's very important that we work together in a very solid and collaborative approach so that for the patients and families it feels like they are receiving one comprehensive program of care at a critical time in their lives. They don't have to work the health care system; the support system is coming to them as one program of care. We have daily collaborations with the physicians and nurses that we work with. We discuss patient cases and as a team come up with a coordinated care plan that effectively meets their comprehensive needs. We work very hard and it's challenging to have to collaborate and operate as an integrated approach to care. We are all very busy in our day-to-day lives and when you are collaborating with other agencies and groups there is a strong need for ongoing communication and respect. We have a really solid team and when the team works well, the best benefit is that the patient and family get the best care possible.
The other thing we know is that by increasing our collaborative efforts and our integration with our health care system we have minimized duplication and created a synergy, where the outcome is far greater than if we were working in our little silos individually. It really does maximize our resources and improve results, but it takes work and you have to keep working at it all the time. There is a real need to stay personally connected to those other partners in care and continue to reaffirm our common mission and vision.
CV: What did receiving the Donner Award tell you about the job you are doing as an organization?
SJ: It was tremendous validation that we are doing quality work, and not only that we are doing quality work, but that we have sound business practices. I would encourage people to get involved with the Donner Awards. We've found it to be a tremendous experience; I can't say enough about it. The process of applying and getting the feedback and being recognized and validated like that, it's been a wonderful experience. I'm grateful that the foundation has presented this opportunity to the nonprofit sector. A lot of awards go to the business world but there is not a lot out there for nonprofits, and I can tell you, most nonprofits can work circles around the business world, when you look at what they do with the resources they have. So it's wonderful to have the foundation recognizing this and supporting and encouraging those of us in the field to continue to do good work and improve our services and business management practices.
For more information about Hospice Saint John & Sussex,
visit: www.hospicesj.com.
To learn more about the Donner Awards, visit: www.fraserinstitute.ca/donner/index.asp.
