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at the table
SELENA BOYETTE, BS, RN-CHPN
Selena Boyette, BS, RN-CHPN, serves as the director
of provider outreach of LCFH&LCC. After years in
public education,
Selena pursued a
career in nursing.
Having worked
in the ICU, then
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
all those things. I could just sit in a
recliner by her bed and hold her hand.
SELENA BOYETTE: Our certified
nursing assistants are masters at thera-peutic
touch. I think that’s a ministry
in and of itself, but certainly a healing.
One of the things that hospice does in
your home is teaches you how to care
for your loved ones to give you con-fidence.
Nursing assistants can teach
families how to touch in a therapeutic
and soothing manner.
DR. KAREN REICHOW: How
vulnerable can you be to be naked and
not able to take care of yourself, and
here is this person who is doing these
very loving things for you. Everybody plays a role. Sometimes for
the patients that are awake and want to go out and enjoy things,
it’s doing their hair and doing their nails. For patients who are at
the end of life, it may be caring for wounds and making sure that
you have that dignity, that you smell nice and you look good.
LAURIE BYSTROM: My mom is a hospice patient. She is
96 and lives with me. My mom has been living with me for
10 years. She’s end-stage heart disease
and she’s been declining over the years.
But as she declined and had things
happen to her, I was having to be the
nurse. So they always say to me now
just sit back, be the daughter here.
And I’ve been blessed to be able to
experience home care with her, respite
care with her in the care center, acute
care with her in the care center and
crisis care at home with her. I think
I’ve had it all.
SELENA BOYETTE: The best
thing in the world is for somebody
to come up to you in Wal-Mart and
say, “Do you remember me?” and I
promise you 99 percent of the time we do. Those people touch us
just as much as we touch them.
REV. JD SIMMONS: At my mother’s funeral, as I was
preaching, I looked back in the congregation and there were
two hospice nurses that had cared for mom and they were
sitting there. What that did to me — that they cared enough
to come and be with me.
with home/
facility hospice,
she later became
the agency’s
first palliative
care nurse. Her
passion lies in
making palliative
care more
accessible to the masses. Selena is a graduate of
East Carolina University and Cape Fear Community
College. She has achieved her certification
in hospice and palliative nursing
and was named 2013 Nursing Alumni of the
Year for Cape Fear Community College.