Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice Certified Hospice and Palliative Nursing Assistant Nancy Taylor knows that at the end of life, time is too precious to offer anything less than the very best.

A certified nursing assistant for about 25 years, Taylor decided to become certified in hospice and palliative care because she knew the knowledge would help her advocate for her clients.

As a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nursing Assistant, she can better help her clients get the services they need and better serve as the eyes and ears of the nurses she works with. That’s important to Taylor, because when she walks into a home, she is caring for not just her client but his or her family as well.

“Hospice treats the whole family,” she said. “I try to make a difference for the family.” 

A commitment to patients and families is what drives Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice providers to not only provide the best care possible for every patient, but also to continually learn more about their profession. 

Over the past two years, every nurse in the hospice team at Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice has become certified in hospice care, including Hospice Coordinator Holly Miller, RN. Dr. Rob Hunold, co-director of Hospice, is also certified in hospice care.

Understanding as much as possible about her job is important to Taylor, because she has seen the difference hospice can make in her own family. Both of her parents died at home with hospice services.

As a CNA, she works to make her clients as comfortable as possible and relieve families of the burden of caring for their loved one, so they can spend as much time as possible together.

In her 25-year career as a Certified Nursing Assistant, Taylor has worked in several different settings, including in nursing homes.

While she enjoyed caring for people, however, she never felt completely comfortable in an institutional setting. Once, while working in a nursing home, she met a former school teacher who kept repeating that she wanted to go home.

“I said to myself, ‘If there is a job where I could help people go home, that is what I want to do,’” she said.

As a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nursing Assistant, Taylor has the knowledge and the experience to help people live their life to the end in the place they want to be.

“I make a difference to the end of the story,” she said.