Fourteen Years and Counting

Lisa Udell talks about her role as an Admit/Float Nurse and tells us what has kept her at Angela Hospice so many years

If you ask Lisa Udell how she got involved with Angela Hospice…well, it’s kind of a long story. Over the past 14 years, she’s worked in a variety of roles within the agency. She’s was a medical assistant, assistant to the home care clinical manager, and an aide scheduler. She’s been on the administrative and hands-on side of patient care, working full-time, part-time, and then contingent as she pursued her nursing degree. After completing her BSN in April 2019, she’s taken on another new position with Angela Hospice as an Admit/Float Nurse.

Lisa said she likes her new position, especially when she is able to see the transformation that can happen. That’s why she even likes the tough visits.

“Part of the position is going in and doing those visits when there is kind of a crisis going on, and the family is overwhelmed, typically, and they just don’t know what to do,” Lisa explained. “So you kind of go in and when you leave, this patient who was definitely not comfortable when you arrived is very comfortable when you leave, and the family is even more comfortable because now they see this rest, this peacefulness that the family member who is on our program is experiencing.

"It’s a good feeling to know that you were able not just to bring comfort to the person who is on the service, who is going through the journey, but to also reeducate the family and let them know that they’re doing a good job. Because sometimes they just need to hear that.”

Lisa is kind and good-natured. She exhibits a calm presence that makes her seem like the perfect fit for a hospice nurse. But she had a roundabout way of coming to her career. When she started medical assistant school, she remembers telling her instructor, “How about you just teach me how to do the paperwork, because I’m pretty sure I’m not poking anyone with a needle.” But through the twists and turns her career has taken, and with the genuine support of her Angela Hospice colleagues and all she has learned, she knows now that’s she’s right where she’s supposed to be.

“I’ve always felt like becoming employed here, for lack of a better way to put it, has just been divine intervention,” she said.

“It is a team effort and people really do genuinely care about each other,"
said Lisa Udell, pictured here with colleague Shellie Sisler.

Lisa said she values the kindness of her co-workers who are always willing to teach and learn from one another, and treat each other more like family. “I’ve always felt nurtured here,” she said. “It’s not just:‘Go out and be good to the patients and their families,' but we kind of wrap our arms around even our colleagues and it’s a good feeling.”

So what does she say when people ask if her job is depressing? “I have to say it is absolutely the most rewarding job I have ever held, to be a part this journey. It’s not depressing. Because the fact of the matter is, none of us get to leave here alive. So it’s a transition we all are at some point going to go through. And it’s probably the most rewarding thing I think I’ve ever done in life — not just as a job, but in life — is to be a part of this journey."

For information on careers at Angela Hospice, visit our website at angelahospice.org/careers.

“Life has its own funny way of showing you where you’re supposed to be, if you just let it guide you.” - Lisa Udell