Jean Gibson began as the new clinical services director at Hospice Advantage in Gallatin on March 1.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Jean has been working in Kansas City the past eight years, driving back and forth, and is looking forward to coming home to "take care of people in my own neighborhood."
Jean has lived in Daviess County all of her life. Two of her three children have established careers in Gallatin. Annie Gibson serves as the prosecuting attorney for Daviess County. Mariah Gibson is a mortician/funeral director at McWilliams Funeral Home. Daryn Gibson is in his last semester at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
Jean will be in charge of overseeing the comprehensive clinical services in the Hospice Advantage area, which includes Daviess, Caldwell, Harrison, Gentry, DeKalb, Grundy, Livingston, Linn and Mercer counties. Hospice Advantage is located at 1210 S. Main Street in Gallatin.
She previously worked at Care Alternatives and at NorthCare Hospice, both in Kansas City. Prior to that she was with home health and hospice at Harrison County Community Hospital, Cameron Regional Medical Center and Wright Memorial Hospital.
Jean was certified in hospital and palliative care in 2006. She is a trainer for the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium, a nationwide initiative to promote training for nurses in end-of-life care.
"Hospice is a field people don’t want to talk about because it means they’re dying," she said. "But just as childbirth classes teach us how to bring life into the world, hospice teaches us how to help someone leave. It’s a privilege to be on someone’s last journey."
Hospice care involves pain and symptom management to allow the dying patient to enjoy as much as possible whatever time they have left.
Hospice care is intermittent care as an interdisciplinary team of nurses, social workers, therapists and chaplains visit the home periodically. Its focus is on teaching family members how to care for loved ones.
In addition to her duties of managing and training new members, Jean said, "I will also be involved in some hands-on care and be able to make home visits. I’m excited and it’s going to be great."