Our Way of Caring: The Vantage Hospice Podcast

Our Way of Caring: Vantage Hospice Podcast [Episode 6]: Jenifer's Path to Becoming a Hospice Aide

• Vantage Hospice & Palliative Care • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Meet Jenifer: A Heartwarming Journey in Hospice Care | Vantage Hospice Podcast

In this heartfelt episode of the Vantage Hospice podcast, host Nicole Knight welcomes Jenifer Bedoya-Freed, a dedicated hospice aide originally from Venezuela. Jenifer shares her inspiring journey of how she became a CNA and later transitioned into hospice care after moving from Colorado to Houston. She talks about her profound connection with patients and the unique, personalized care she provides. Jenifer and Nicole also discuss the family-like atmosphere at Vantage Hospice, challenges faced, and the unwavering support within the organization. Tune in to learn more about Jenifer's dedication and the exceptional standards at Vantage Hospice.

00:00 Welcome to Vantage Hospice Podcast
00:21 Meet Jenifer: A Journey from Venezuela
01:09 Becoming a Nurse: Jenifer's Story
02:10 Transition to Hospice Care
03:03 The Role of a Hospice Aide
06:03 The Vantage Family Experience
07:48 High Standards and Supportive Environment
09:05 Closing Remarks and Gratitude



Vantage Hospice & Palliative Care

Our Mission

Vantage Hospice, LLC is dedicated to providing individualized hospice care with services specially tailored to the physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs of patients with life limiting illness, their families and the community, by delivering high quality and compassionate care.

We strive to create a culture dedicated to meeting the needs of our patients, families and employees based on the principles of dignity, respect and compassion.

Hospice recognizes dying as part of the normal process of living and focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life. It affirms life and neither hastens nor postpones death through a multidisciplinary team approach. Hospice is not a place. It is philosophy.

Nicole Knight:

Welcome back to our podcast for Vantage Hospice. It's February, which is the month of love. And we thought we would share some love with our, from our staff to everybody, but also just so everybody can get to know our staff a little bit and what their roles are. This is Ms. Jennifer, you want to tell us a little bit about. yourself? Sure.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

Yeah. I'm Jennifer with one n and I'm from Venezuela and I came here 26 years ago. Wow. And I think God bless me when he let me give me the opportunity to move to this beautiful country. And then I, I, I took it and I've always been so happy and I always felt, how do you say, have

Nicole Knight:

felt,

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

yes, have felt home. Like everybody was giving me a welcome and everybody has been very, very nice since I moved here. So, no regrets.

Nicole Knight:

So, how did you become an aide, just in general? Not a hospice aide, but just how did you become an aide? How did you choose that? I didn't choose everything.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

Things choose me. I love that

Nicole Knight:

too.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

In life. I started working in a kitchen in a nursing home back in Colorado and then the nurses over there, they always keep telling me we want you to work with us in the floor. And I said no, I can't. No, I can't. So one day they told me we're going to pay for your classes and we want you to work with us. Wow. So they paid for my classes and I became a nurse. CNA and I started working with them. With them. And as a matter of fact, I got one year, I got the employee of the month.

Nicole Knight:

Not shocking at all. Yeah, not, no, I, yes, I can totally believe it. Not shocking at all.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

So anyway, and then I, I, I work in the, in the floor and then I love my job and the thing is that I like to help. I like to help.

Nicole Knight:

I can attest to that.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

And then that's when you, eight is you get the opportunity to help people,

Nicole Knight:

right? Mm-hmm . So what drew you to hospice?

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

Hospice choose me to, again, . Love it. After the divorce, I moved from Colorado to Houston. Okay. And I was lost. I didn't know what to do, and I met my angel. Edwin. Edwin. Edwin Gomez. And he's the one that told me, why you are not working? This is the city for the medical, for the medical jobs. Oh, yes. Mm hmm. You know, this is why you're not working. And I said, because I don't I'm not too sure what I want to do. And then, he started talking to me, talking to me about hospice. And then, he gave me the page of the Vantage, and he said, I want you to get in this the internet and read everything about dentists, about hospice, and you let me know if you want to, you want to come. So, and I said, I think, I think I want to do that. I want to try to do that. So

Nicole Knight:

what is it, what's different with hospice, being an aide in hospice versus being an aide in the nursing home? What is? Huge, huge difference

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

for

Nicole Knight:

me. Okay.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

Huge difference. I don't know. I mean, I don't have to work with the same people all the time. Right. It's just, just, I don't know, go to places and meet people and the family and everybody has a different needs. And you try to provide the care that they're expecting. And I love it.

Nicole Knight:

One of the things that we we talk about and we've talked about on previous podcasts is how Our hospice aides take the time with the patients and they, you know, they, I mean, paint their fingernails and brush their hair and do the things that time doesn't permit you to do like in a, in a facility sometimes, cause you've got so much you have to do, right? Exactly. So, what type of, I mean, do you, I'm sure you do all of that, brush their hair and paint their nails and if they need their nails painted, what other stuff do you?

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

I like everybody smells good. Okay. So, I like to have a sprays. Okay. Because, you know, spray, you can use a spray with everybody because it's not touching. Sure. So, you spray. So, I have a spray for men and for women. Oh. When I shave the guys, I always carry my aftershave. Okay. Because that make them smell good and When I see them smelling, for me, okay, they look different, clean, and smell good. Job is done. The job is done. Yes.

Nicole Knight:

Absolutely. So we have some of the best aides in Houston. We do. We do. I mean, it's just incredible. You know, the time and attention to detail that you guys have. And I just, I just want to tell you how much we appreciate everything that you do. Because in case you don't know the hospice aides are the backbone to any organization. They are the, you are the group of people that see the patient the most. So, a hospice aide can go anywhere between three to seven days a week, depending on what, what those needs might be. And, you know, a nurse may go once or twice. a week or once, you know, once a week versus the AIDS that I see them, I mean, three times a week or more. So you guys are incredible. We love it. We

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

are the eyes and the ears.

Nicole Knight:

Absolutely. To the

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

nurses, to you guys, to the social service, to everybody. We are really, because we see the patients more often than you guys. And the

Nicole Knight:

other thing too, is it's, you build a rapport that I as a nurse may never have. Because, you know, I'm, I may not be the one that's there bathing them and those intimate details and, you know, situations they tend to share more with you sometimes. Yes. Because you are, you know, you're doing these intimate things with them and making sure that they are, you know, clean. It's like

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

a, you build like a little connection, right? Yes.

Nicole Knight:

And then they, they, yes. Absolutely. So what's it you love about Vantage?

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

Well, like I said, since, Since the day one when I came to look for a job, Rick. Mm-hmm . And Jennifer? Yes. They were the people that interview me. Oh, okay. And then, I don't know why Jennifer and I, Jennifer Crammer, Uhhuh, and she and me make like some, she made a little connection with me because she said another Jennifer with one N because her name turned Jennifer with one N. Yes. And then she was so nice with me. I miss her. She, yes. Me, you. Yes. Yes. And working for Vantage, really, I've been here for six years, almost six years and five months. I see you and I see Brandy and I see everybody, I mean, you know, the faces, and it's, it's family. I know that if one day I need something and I need to ask you for What, what would you do, Mary? Mary is my, my background too. And Florence. And Patty. Yes. So, I know, and Gabby. Well, everybody. Everybody. See, everybody. It's like a, we are family. Yes. When you, in the meetings, when I started working here, in the meetings, you start to say, the family Vantage, the Vantage family. Mm hmm. And then I said, no, we are just co workers. We, no family. Now. I can see that we are family. We really are family here. We take care of each other. And as a family, we have to, you know, be strong sometimes and be, you know, like a, why did you do this? I want you to do this and prove that. That's family. But at the end, everybody's gonna be there

Nicole Knight:

for everybody. I like to say a lot of times that Vantage has really, really high standards. Really. very high standards. And it's almost, I mean, we're busy. You know, we are a busy growing hospice. And everybody works, everybody works. So we work hard and we play hard, which is great. But the expectations, I mean, the people that work here are all supportive of one another. And we, you know, we try to help each other out as much as we can. So I agree.

Jenifer Bedoya-Freed:

In the hard times, you know, when With, with COVID. I mean, with all. Oh, yeah. We were like a family. You guys were always there with the zoom meetings, you know, asking us what can I do for you guys is you guys need to talk with somebody. We are here for you guys and then stay in home safety and you guys take care of us like a family. That's what I said. We are a family. I'm so happy to work here. You know that. Oh yeah. Yes. All right. Okay. That's it.

Nicole Knight:

Yeah. Did you want to close out with anything else? I mean, I don't know. We can either do it as a combined episode or we can do two separate. Whatever you want to do, whatever you think. I think two separate. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So, thank you for joining us today. Thank you, Jennifer, for, for, for, I mean, I, you did phenomenal and I, we are so, so blessed to have you working with us. So thank you so much.

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Nicole Knight, FNP

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