A Hospice Nurse Answers The Call To Care For Terminally Ill Coronavirus Patients

The job of a hospice nurse is to care for the comfort of people who are dying. That job didn’t change in the pandemic — it just got riskier. Some hospices turned away COVID-positive patients, deeming the risk to its staff too great. Others stepped up.

Molly Polansky is a hospice nurse at Good Shepherd Community Care in Newton. When Good Shepherd asked its employees if any would volunteer to care for hospice patients sick with the coronavirus, Polansky answered the call.

Her decision was born out of a feeling that "if I can do something that needs to be done, I should be doing it," Polsansky said. "There's tons of healthcare providers out there, and grocery store workers and delivery people, all kinds of people, who don't have the opportunity to make a choice. You know, they have to do it. [Whereas] I do have the choice to join the force of helping out with this terrible thing."

Listen to the audio attached to this post to hear Polansky discuss her role in the pandemic, in her own words. This audio dispatch was produced by WBUR's Amelia Mason.