Visiting Nurse Service Of New York Hospice Care

Last updated on November 26, 2008

Visiting Nurse Service of New York Hospice and Palliative Care provides expert, readily available, comprehensive and compassionate care to patients and families. We are the resource of choice for hospice and palliative care information, education and service for every resident and health care provider in Metropolitan New York.

Description:
We provide expert, compassionate care for individuals and families living with progressive, serious illness at the end of life. Our care addresses physical, emotional, spiritual and bereavement needs.

We serve our community with a commitment to excellence, sensitivity to cultural diversity, enthusiasm for innovation and without regard to age, race, religion, sexual preference or ability to pay.

We are committed to sound business practices, ethical decision-making and to being the employer of choice in hospice and palliative care.

We desire to shape societal attitudes and behaviors about end of life care and extend our expertise in dying and bereavement to the community. Through education and advocacy we enhance public knowledge and influence the practice of health care providers.

History:
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York was founded in 1893 by two young nurses, Lillian Wald and Mary Brewster.

At the time, the Lower East Side of Manhattan had the densest population in the world with 1,000 people per acre. Most of the residents were impoverished immigrants who had come to America from Europe with little more than their dreams. They had settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with others who shared their cultural backgrounds - people who spoke the same languages, ate the same foods. Many of the immigrants lived in tenements and worked in gruesome sweat shops where the hours were long, the work hard, and the wages pitiful. Sickness was rampant. Because many of the sick could not afford to leave their jobs or their families in order to be hospitalized, 90% of the sick lived at home.

Down on Henry Street, Lillian Wald, a New York Hospital nursing graduate, was teaching a course to immigrant women on home care and hygiene. One morning a little girl - the daughter of one of Wald's students - came into the classroom, weeping.

"My mother is sick," she said.

Lillian Wald followed the child back to her family's cramped tenement apartment. The girl's young mother lay in a dirty bed soaked with blood. She had been hemorrhaging since giving birth two days earlier.

Wald sprang into action. She ministered care to the woman, cleaned up her bed and room, and comforted the family. The family was extremely poor. The woman's husband, severely disabled, made his livelihood begging on street corners. The family was so grateful to Lillian Wald that when she turned to go, they kissed her hands.

This event changed Lillian Wald's life.

With Mary Brewster's help, Lillian Wald set out to bring nursing services directly into the homes of those who most needed them. In 1893, Wald and Brewster created the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service, which became the major model for visiting nursing in the United States. Lillian Wald defined public health nursing, which not only seeks to cure the sick patient but also tries to alleviate the underlying causes of disease by improving health education and public health standards. Her vision became the founding of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

Contact people:

Janeen Thompson, Volunteer Manager, (718) 888-6967, (email)
Taren Sterry, Volunteer Manager, (212) 609-1908, (email)

Office fax number: (212) 290-3933

Address:

1250 Broadway
New York City, NY 10001
(See a map)

Web Site: https://www.vnsny.org/mainsite/services/s_hospice.html

Directions:

Our offices are located on the corner of Broadway and 32nd Street, 7th Floor. It is 2 blocks East of Penn Station.
  Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 34th Street/Herald Square,
  Walk distance (in minutes): 2
  Nearest Bus Stop: M4 and Q32, 2 minute walk

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