INTRODUCING MINDI HENRY
Mindi Henry, MSN, APRN-CNP, ACHPN
PDC Rx - Director of Clinical Services
Mindi Henry (I) entered nursing school with plans to become a labor and delivery nurse, which is very common for many young nursing students. Unlike most of my classmates, I had no experience in nursing. We read in our textbooks that the role of the nurse involves understanding the patient’s physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. However, I did not see that practiced in the typical clinical settings until my hospice rotation. I thought to myself “now this is real nursing”.
I was fortunate enough to complete my preceptorship in hospice, and after twelve weeks, I knew that I was a hospice nurse. I started my nursing career in hospice. Fast forward four years, and the same nurse who precepted me asked for my help in starting a new hospice. We proudly grew an amazing hospice from the ground up. I took a break from hospice to work in oncology only to return to that same hospice and assist with acquisition of a second location.
In 2009, I had the opportunity to develop and implement an inpatient palliative care team at Jane Phillips Medical Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The team was started with one part time social worker and this ambitious RN determined to succeed. No one in the building had ever heard of palliative care so that challenge was great. When my social worker relocated, I was able to hire my previous boss, the same nurse who precepted me and whom I worked alongside to build a successful hospice. Together we grew the inpatient palliative
care program.
During my time at Jane Phillips, I went back to school and earned my master’s in nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner at Clarkson College. As a certified Advanced Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse and an End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) trainer, I trained as many nurses as I could each year in ELNEC. Our team trained not only the hospital staff nurses, but any nurse in the community who was willing to learn. I attribute the success of our palliative program to the nurses we trained; they became the advocates for end-of-life care and in turn, advocates for me and my team.
By 2019, our team was well embedded in the hospital culture, and caring for approximately thirty five percent of all admitted patients. We had hired an additional nurse, a smart and organized critical care nurse, and the three of us cared for over 700 patients annually. Then came COVID, and the role of our team shifted drastically. The next two years were spent assisting the hospitalist team with caring for COVID patients and communicating with families. We no longer cared for the typical palliative care patient; we became the palliative COVID team. As trained palliative care providers, we were the most qualified to manage complex symptoms and have difficult discussions with families. Complicated by visitor restrictions, hospital policies, and the overall abysmal outcomes, the care of the COVID patient and their family was the most difficult of my career.
I had met Jaymie Wilson when she was working with the inpatient palliative care team at St John, our sister hospital. From the first time I met her, I knew that she was “my people”. Throughout the years, I would run into Jaymie at meetings or conferences, and we spent most of the time in fast paced conversations, brainstorming, and laughing. A few years after she moved to PDC and later encouraged me to join her. I had NO idea what a PBM was or what she did, but after several years, I finally visited PDC, and I was intrigued. Then I met Mark, Paul, and the PDC team, and the rest is history. I left the inpatient program I had built and accepted the Director of Clinical Services position at PDC, on complete blind faith alone.
I am so excited to share the knowledge that I have acquired through my years of experience in hospice and inpatient palliative care to assist the clients of PDC. My passion is teaching nurses, helping administrators, and sharing my experience in managing pain and symptoms for the terminal patient. The suggestions that I provide in the medication reviews and utilization meetings are often medication regimens that I have used personally at the bedside. I want to provide the hospice teams with the most up to date, evidence-based practice protocols to better serve their patients. I look forward to the day that COVID restrictions are behind us, and I can visit our clients and provide in person training when needed.
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Mindi Henry MSN, APRN-CNP, ACHPN -
Director of Clinical Services PDC Rx