Jessica Jukes, RN, nurse care manager, worked with Jenn and the man's provider.
When Jenn, a licensed clinical social worker, was asked to investigate the man’s situation and get him set up for hospice care, all she knew was that he was living in a motorhome parked behind a restaurant where he’d worked before he got too sick to continue. The man had lung cancer that had metastasized to his brain. He’d made the choice to not seek treatment, Jenn says.
She found his motorhome and knocked on his door not knowing for sure what to expect.
The man felt uncomfortable having her in the motorhome because he felt the inside wasn’t ready for visitors, Jenn says.
“We just stood outside in the snow, every time I visited him,” she says.
Getting the man on hospice care, would allow a nurse to help him with medication for pain issues that would be coming his way, but he wasn’t ready to take that step yet, Jenn says.
“He said he needed a couple of weeks because he had some belongings he wanted to give away and he had some things he wanted to do before he went on hospice care. I told him that was fine,” she says.
Stephanie Smart, social worker, says that the man appreciated being able to take a shower once he checked into the Inn Between.
“I didn't feel good about him being left there, knowing that at any point he could really decline and no one would know,” Jenn says. “I just kind of felt like I needed to keep checking on him. I felt like that was the least I could do.”
Jenn was also worried he might freeze to death in his motorhome during the winter. Jenn kept checking on him until one day Jessica Jukes, RN, nurse care manager, got a call from the man’s primary care provider saying he’d missed a regular weekly appointment. She phoned Jenn late on a Friday night to tell her of the troubling situation. As Jenn drove to check on the man that night, she worried he might have already died.
When she arrived, Jenn says he answered the door and told her, “I’m not doing too well. I’m in a lot of pain. I can’t drive any more, and I can barely walk. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
He hadn’t been able to shower for three weeks and wanted a chance to take a nice hot shower. She suggested she admit him for hospice care and get him into the hospital, but he didn’t want to go to the hospital because of a previous bad experience. She reported back to Jessica and told her that she was going to try to get the man in to the Inn Between the next day. The next day, a Saturday, Jenn called the facility and at first they weren’t going to admit him because the administrator was out of town.
“I kind of explained to them, ‘Look, he needs to be on hospice, but he won’t go to the hospital and he won’t admit to hospice until he can be at the Inn Between. Is there any way we can get an admission, ahead of time?’” she says. “They called the director while she was on vacation and she gave them the okay to admit him, so we were able to get him in that day.”
The Inn Between social worker Stephanie Smart, who helped clear the way for the patient to move in, went to visit with him on Monday and said “he was crying and super emotional about how he was so happy he’d gotten to go there and he said he’d had a 20-minute shower which he was so excited for. He said he was surprised people cared and took the time to make sure he was okay,” Jenn says.
Jenn says she was happy he had a safe, warm place to stay at such a hard time in his life.
“He needed a place to stay,” Jenn says. “He needed to be able to live out the remainder of his life in a place where he was comfortable and he just wasn't ready for that at first and then, when he finally was ready, it was kind of a mad dash to hurry and get him in, but we were able to get that done.”
Jessica says Jenn went the extra mile to help him after she gave her the referral to go visit him.
“Jennifer was in constant contact with me to ensure a team approach to this patient’s care, as I reported back to the patient’s physician,” Jessica says. “Jennifer went above and beyond—including late night and weekend visits to the patient—to make this happen successfully. She was phenomenal in her work. This couldn’t have happened without her diligence and dedication.”