Employee Spotlight: Michelle Willingham-Tubbs

Name: Michelle Willingham-Tubbs, Home Care Charge Nurse

How long have you worked here?

15 years in August.

What made you decide to work here?

I had a friend that came here and just said what a wonderful place it was, and I love working in hospice because I’ve worked in hospice prior. This just had such a family, caring atmosphere. Everybody felt like…they cared so much about the patients. And that’s what it was about: caring about each other and caring about the patients. You have that in some agencies but it just went from the top to the bottom here. So it just felt like a good fit for me.

What’s a typical day like for you?

A lot of phone calls, a lot of multi-tasking, and trying to think out of the box to get as many people served as possible. It’s a little bit of a juggling act; serving those we have and bringing as many people on as possible.

What is your favorite part about working at Angela Hospice?

Hearing people’s stories; everybody has a story. I think that’s an honor to hear what they have to say and it’s a privilege for us to be in their lives. That’s probably my favorite part.

Through the years I’ve heard so many amazing stories, and no matter where I’m at, if I have my badge on or something that says Angela Hospice, I have never once heard a bad story. Someone will always say, “Oh, we recommend Angela Hospice,” or “My family member was with you,” and it’s always positive, and it’s always great, and it’s always very encouraging.

On the rare occasion when we’re having a really busy day and maybe things are not going the way I want them to it always seems like somebody will be on the other end of the phone or I’ll walk into somebody and they’ll say, “You made the difference, you’re an angel.” I think that’s what keeps us all going.

What is one of your favorite memories from your time at Angela Hospice?

I was case managing at the time, at St. Mary’s Hospital, and I was there with a patient and the family. The patient was…we thought kind of like transitional, active phase of dying, and we knew that this patient loved music. At that time we had one of our spiritual care persons that day that happened to play an instrument and this patient just kind of responded. The whole room, the whole floor lit up, and just to see that, it really does make a difference because I had been trying to encourage the family to do something like that on their own. But when they saw that, it just made the difference. And then they kind of carried it on and this person had a nice, peaceful death. They just couldn’t say enough about us.