Gifford Medical Center offers healthy cooking classesGifford Medical Center offers healthy cooking classesGifford Medical Center offers healthy cooking classeTwo Gifford nurses earn special palliative care certification
RANDOLPH, May 12, 2008 – Gifford Medical Center registered nurses Pam Fournier and John Young have earned special certification in end-of-life care from the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association.
Fournier of Braintree and Young of Bethel earned their certifications by successfully completing three-hour exams in Burlington in February and March. The national certification means Fournier and Young have learned special skills to treat the dying and chronically ill.
Fournier is Gifford’s palliative care manager, and Young, a medical-surgical nurse on Gifford’s Howell Pavilion inpatient unit, previously worked as a hospice nurse. Their interest in end-of-life care and Gifford’s special focus on palliative medicine prompted the two to seek the special certification.
“We have an Advanced Illness Care Team at Gifford and we have two physicians who are palliative care certified. Having John and I certified adds to what we can bring to our patients,” said Fournier, who serves on the Advanced Illness Care Team.
“I think we’re doing a good job with death and dying at this hospital. The more nurses, nurses aides and physicians specially certified, the better job we’ll do,” added Young.
Young worked for two years with the Visiting Nurse Association and 12 years at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center before joining Gifford. Nursing is a second career for Young, who previously worked as an ornamental blacksmith doing decorative ironwork.
He maintains his Age of Iron blacksmithing business at his Bethel home, making what he calls a “back ball” self-massaging tool. He has four children and five grandchildren.
Fournier has worked at Gifford for 15 years in a variety of areas, including inpatient care, the hospital’s Ambulatory Care Unit, in oncology for nine years, as coagulation clinic manager for eight years and now in palliative care and care management, the latter of which is a specialty that involves discharge planning for hospitalized patients.
Fournier is married to fellow Gifford nurse, Marc Fournier, and has one son. She previously has earned certifications in other specialties, including oncology and coagulation.
“I really like to learn,” Fournier says. “For me, it just adds a dimension to my license as a nurse.”
Young said he has a passion for hospice medicine. “It’s a good fit for me,” he says.
Gifford reserves a special garden-side suite in the hospital for end-of-life patients and provides these patients with special services, like massages to lessen pain and music. A motorcycle ride in the summer, the Last Mile Ride, scheduled this year for Aug. 16, raises funds to provide this extra service.