Three Compass Regional Hospice Staff Members Receive Hospice Caregivers Awards

CENTREVILLE — Three Compass Regional Hospice clinical staff members are the most recent recipients of the Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Hospice Caregivers Award.

Nurse Jessica Losten, certified nursing assistant Courtney Pinder and social worker Shakeara Jones were nominated by a patient’s family member, to recognize their commitment to compassionate and personalized end‐of‐life care.

Each staff member is committed to the mission of Compass Regional Hospice, which is to provide “Care on your terms” to individuals, families and the community through comprehensive, professional and compassionate end‐of‐life care and grief support.

Hospice is a unique philosophy of care focused on living well at the end of life. Each member of the Compass Regional Hospice interdisciplinary team plays a role in helping patients and their families as they adjust to living with a serious illness. The hospice interdisciplinary team consists of physicians, a nurse practitioner, nurses, hospice aides, social workers, grief and spiritual counselors, and volunteers. Together, they care for patients wherever they call home, which includes private residences, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and senior living communities.

Losten, Pinder and Jones were singled out for the care they provided to the nominator’s loved one. As a nurse, Losten is responsible for symptom management in patients, medication suggestions and coordination of the plan of care with Compass’ Chief Medical Director Dr. Thomas Walsh, its Nurse Practitioner, Ashley Kinnally, and the patient’s attending physician. Since Losten’s nomination for this award, she has been promoted to clinical manager for the home care nurses at Compass Regional Hospice.

As a certified nursing assistant, Pinder is involved with many aspects of a patient’s hospice care, including feeding, personal care, administering medication, assuring residents are comfortable and safe, and collaborating with team members to meet a resident’s plan of care. As a social worker, Jones is responsible for attending to the psychosocial needs of Compass Regional Hospice’s patients and their families.

Losten has been providing compassionate care to Compass Regional Hospice’s patients since March 2018, Pinder has been a Compass CNA since March 2010 and Jones has been a social worker with Compass Regional Hospice since May 2017.

The Hospice Caregivers Award nominator wrote, “Dad returned home with a team of caregivers from Compass Regional Hospice. With certainty, returning home would not have been possible without the Compass Regional Hospice core team of Jessica Losten, Courtney Pinder and Shakeara Jones.”

The nominator said the team worked well together and were always there for their father.

“They were always available to him and his family, even when they had other obligations to attend to. They made time for us. They made him feel special,” the nominator wrote. “They became an extension of our family … they were accepted by his community as family.”

The nominator said Compass’ team guided the family through difficult times with compassion and expertise.

“They stood with us when it seemed to us too painful to deal with. They were patient and steady when we were not. They calmed us when we didn’t know we needed it. They made our situation bearable. They gave us strength and hope,” the nominator wrote.

The Hospice Caregivers Award nominator also gave honorable mentions to Compass Regional Hospice physical therapist Kris Gowl, nurse Jackie Keating and grief counselor Ann OConnor.

The quarterly Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Hospice Caregivers Award is open to physicians, nurses, social workers, bereavement counselors, hospice aides, chaplains, administrative staff and volunteers of Compass Regional Hospice who care for patients in Queen Anne’s, Kent and Caroline counties.

To nominate a hospice caregiver, contact Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, 408 S. Liberty St., Centreville, at 410‐758‐1151 or info@fhnfuneralhome.com.

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~ Compass Regional Hospice – Care on your terms

Compass Regional Hospice is a fully licensed, independent, community-based nonprofit organization certified by Medicare and the state of Maryland and accredited by the Joint Commission. Since 1985, Compass Regional Hospice has been dedicated to supporting people of all ages through the challenge of living with a life-limiting illness and learning to live following the death of a loved one. Today, the organization is a regional provider of hospice care and grief support in Queen Anne’s, Kent and Caroline counties. “Care on your terms” is the promise that guides staff and volunteers as they care for patients in private residences, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and the residential hospice centers in Centreville and Chestertown. Grief support services are offered to children, adults, and families of patients who died under hospice care, as well as members of the community who are grieving the loss of a loved one, through The Hope and Healing Center. For more information about Compass Regional Hospice, visit compassregionalhospice.org.