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Tuesday, May 13
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 Terry Puglisi |
Taking Care of the Caretakers
Originally published in Chicago Hospital News, May 2005
Taking Care of the Caretakers
Terri Puglisi uses the word family when she talks about the interdisciplinary team she manages for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Chicagoland Central. She talks about the favorite dishes the staff prepare for each other, the emotions that surface when they talk about their patients, the way team members call her just to check in during their day. It’s a far cry from the group she inherited three years ago when she took the job.
“She created a cohesive group,” says Doug Irvin, director of admissions at Chicagoland Central.
“These people do a job out there that not many can do," Puglisi says. “They were short handed and overworked. They just needed someone they could count on to go to bat for them.”
Puglisi came to the job armed an inherent optimism, a belief in the VITAS approach to hospice care and a strength that comes from surviving life’s difficulties. “I know the person I’ve become,” she says confidently. “I don’t want to be 21 anymore.”
The next step was to learn to see each member of her team as an individual, taking the time to get to know the personal behind the professional. “They needed a pat on the back,” she says. “They needed to vent, and they needed someone to sit and listen—more than listen; they needed someone to hear.”
Puglisi believes managers should think like coaches, identifying and building on the strengths of each player. It requires individual feedback, thank yous, notes, acknowledgement of a job well done, all of which she doles out liberally. But she doesn’t hesitate to point out shortcomings. “For a team to be as well-functioning as this one is now, the negatives as well as the positives have to be addressed,” she says. “Otherwise, the bad stuff gets pushed under the rug. So I’m honest and direct. I say what needs to be said, and we move on.”
Three years ago the team cared for just 30 patients. Today, as a much larger team, they care for 70+ terminally ill patients in their homes on the north side of the city, with a goal of reaching a census of 100. The team has grown in size, but Puglisi says it’s grown much more in compassion, efficiency and organization. It is a team not just in name, but in attitude.
“It’s remarkable how we’ve evolved,” Puglisi says. “I respect them and they respect me. I’ve become the anchor they never had, so they can go out and do the best for the patient—and live up to those VITAS values. We joke that they’re corny, but they’re not. They make a lot of sense:
Patients and families come first.
We take care of each other.
I’ll do my best today and do even better tomorrow.
I am proud to make a difference.”
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