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Welcome to the NHHPCO Member’s Page

We offer this space to our current members to post member accomplishments and news of upcoming events. This would include education events in a member organization, educational or professional certifications or awards received, articles written by a member etc. News worthy items can be submitted to Janice McDermott jmcdermott@nhhpco.org and will be posted as soon as possible by our web manager. NHHPCO reserves the right to accept or decline to post items submitted.

DR. PATRICK CLARY

SCHEDULE

October 7, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. he is doing a poetry reading from "Dying for Beginners" in honor of Stephen McPhee's retirement as Primary Care Grand Rounds" at UCSF in San Francisco, California.

November 18, 2010 at 6:14 P.M. he will present "Confessions of an Ex-Lone Ranger, Clinical Pearls, Gems and Silver Bullets" at Old Colony Hospice, 4 Scanlon Drive, Randolph, MA

LACONIA, NH – Andréa R. Huertas, RN, BSN, CHPN, MBA, has been chosen as the new Program Manager for the Hospice and Palliative Care programs at Community Health & Hospice in Laconia. Huertas will lead the CH&H Hospice team: registered nurses; Dr. Carolyn Crosby, medical director; licensed nursing assistants; a social worker; bereavement coordinator; volunteers; and other health care professionals such as physical or occupational therapists, nutritionists, and a pharmacist. She says, “The hospice team here is a dedicated group of caring and compassionate professionals providing high quality care in our community. I’m delighted to be working with them again.”

This is not a new role for Andréa, between 2003 and 2008 she worked as CH&H’s Hospice Program Manager before leaving to expand her professional horizons. Her experience includes working as an Executive Director for a small Visiting Nurse Association, Hospice Director for a VNA & Hospice, the Nurse Manager in an oncology office; five years as Clinical Supervisor, Home Health Supervisor, and Hospice Staff Nurse at a VNA (Visiting Nurse Association) Hospice; and ten years as a Staff Nurse.

“We are so pleased to welcome Andrea back to CH&H” Says Margaret Franckhauser, Executive Director of Community Health & Hospice. “Her hospice expertise is well recognized in NH where she also serves as the president of the NH Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. Andrea has a nice way of making the idea of hospice part of the community lexicon. We look forward to many years of community care under her guidance.”

Hospice is a unique program which strives to provide the best, most compassionate care possible for individuals with life-limiting illnesses and to support families in times of enormous stress. Huertas says, “It is an honor and a privilege for a hospice patient and family to allow us to be a part of their care at this intimate time in their life!”

As death approaches, a gradual shift in emphasis from curative and life prolonging therapies toward palliative therapies can relieve significant medical burdens and maintain a patient's dignity and comfort. To read full article "Pharmacologic Pearls for End-of-Life Care" written by Patrick L. Clary, MD and Philip Lawson, MD, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Concord Regional VNA Honors Merrimack Co. Nursing Home Hospice Unit Opening

Boscawen, NH—Hospice staff of Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association presented staff of the Hospice Unit of Merrimack County Nursing Home with books and blankets at the Unit’s recent open house. Both organizations were celebrating the opening of MCNH’s Hospice Unit, which will help meet the need for end-of-life care for those residing in nursing homes.

The books are for the library in the Merrimack County Nursing Home Hospice Unit. The books, on end-of-life caregiving, cultural issues, and grief, are for staff and family/caregivers. The special, comforting blankets are weighted in order to enhance sensory integration and provide sensory support for end-of-life patients residing in MCNH’s Hospice Unit.

Lois Ferguson (far left), Vice President-Hospice, Concord Regional VNA, presents comforting blankets for residents in the MCNH Hospice Unit. Left to right are Merrimack County Nursing Home staff Gail Ela, Amy Nichols, and Lori Stratton.