187 Surviving with Laughter: Angela Nissel Talks Hospice and Healing
Release Date: 05/24/2026
197 Author Dr. Jerry Woodbridge on Children’s Grief, Widowhood, and Writing the Loved, Lost, Won Series
Hospice Explained
197 Author Dr. Jerry Woodbridge on Children’s Grief, Widowhood, and Writing the Loved, Lost, Won Series In Hospice Explained episode 197, host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews educator and author Dr. Jerry Woodbridge about grief, faith, and her writing. Dr. Jerry shares her background in education and educational technology, her sudden widowhood in 2004 when her husband died one day after a colon cancer diagnosis, and the impact on her children, including her son’s unspoken panic attacks and a difficult move from Florida to Indiana. She describes how...
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196 Six-Year Anniversary Reflections and CPR Considerations at End of Life
Hospice Explained
196 Six-Year Anniversary Reflections and CPR Considerations at End of Life In episode 196 of Hospice Explained, host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, marks what she considers the podcast’s six-year anniversary since beginning work on it in August 2020 and reflects on how it grew far beyond the 20 episodes she originally expected. She highlights a recent Facebook post from The Hospice Heart by nurse educator Gabby Jimenez about her brother’s end-of-life and CPR experience, encourages listeners to read it, and notes plans to invite Gabby back after her prior...
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195 Funeral Planning, Grief, and Hospice: Bob Arrington on Why Celebrating a Life Matters
Hospice Explained
195 Funeral Planning, Grief, and Hospice: Bob Arrington on Why Celebrating a Life Matters Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews Bob Arrington, NFDA spokesperson and longtime Tennessee funeral director, about how funeral service supports the grief journey and why planning matters. Arrington explains that families don’t call a funeral director just to bury or cremate, but to begin adjusting to a “new normal,” and that skipping any kind of service often makes grief harder for family and community. He encourages pausing to honor a life even with simple...
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194 Pet Grief and Disenfranchised Loss (with Hospice Chaplain Jessica Shannon)
Hospice Explained
194 Pet Grief and Disenfranchised Loss (with Hospice Chaplain Jessica Shannon) Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews board-certified hospice chaplain and author Jessica Shannon in episode 194, focusing on pet grief. They discuss pet loss as “disenfranchised grief,” often experienced as lonely and minimized by society, and describe anticipatory grief that begins as pets age and decline. Jessica explains how pet grief can be as intense as human loss, may trigger cumulative grief when an animal is tied to a deceased loved one, and includes grieving...
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193 From Grief Math to Spiritual Play: A Journey with Chaplain Jessica Shannon
Hospice Explained
193 From Grief Math to Spiritual Play: A Journey with Chaplain Jessica Shannon Hospice Explained host Marie Betcher (RN and former hospice nurse) interviews board-certified chaplain, writer, certified grief coach, and hospice bereavement coordinator Jessica Shannon. Jessica explains how chaplains provide interfaith support without proselytizing and help families find hope in whatever sustains them, including in complex situations where family members draw on different sources such as faith or science. She describes pediatric spiritual play—rooted in child development and adapted from Jerome...
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192: Cynthia Cisneros on Home Hospice, Symptom Management, and Team Support
Hospice Explained
192: Cynthia Cisneros on Home Hospice, Symptom Management, and Team Support Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews Cynthia Cisneros RN in episode 192 about her nursing career and hospice experience. Cynthia describes studying at UCLA, earning a nursing degree in 1981, and working in orthopedics, pediatrics, oncology, and with early AIDS patients before moving into home health and then hospice, where she was mentored by a pioneer nurse, Margaret, and later worked in palliative care and home hospice evaluations. Cynthia emphasizes that families often wish...
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191 Jack Clifford on EECP, Self-Advocacy, and Supporting Loved Ones at End of Life
Hospice Explained
191 Jack Clifford on EECP, Self-Advocacy, and Supporting Loved Ones at End of Life Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews retired US Coast Guard E9 Jack Clifford, author of “EECP: The Most Underutilized Therapy in Medicine,” about his experience declining emergency triple-bypass surgery after being hospitalized in January 2021 with severe coronary artery disease and instead pursuing enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP). Jack describes researching options, advocating for a pause in urgent medical “pipelines,” and traveling to access EECP...
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190 Comfort Measures in the Hospital: What They Mean and How They Help
Hospice Explained
190 Comfort Measures in the Hospital: What They Mean and How They Help Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, explains what “comfort measures” mean when offered during a hospital stay. Comfort measures begin when curative care stops and the focus shifts to relieving discomfort, pain, and distress for patients nearing end of life through appropriate medications and bedside care. She notes that comfort measures are not a full care program and lack the added support hospice can provide, but they are still valuable, especially when hospice is not offered or available...
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189 Cumulus: Reimagining Digital Memorials and Legacy with Architect-Founder Alexander Josephson
Hospice Explained
189 Cumulus: Reimagining Digital Memorials and Legacy with Architect-Founder Alexander Josephson Host Marie Betcher, a registered nurse and former hospice nurse, interviews Alexander Josephson, creator of Cumulus, a Toronto/New York-based digital memorial platform designed as an immersive “memory cloud” where families can store and experience photos, videos, notes, and other legacy content in VR-accessible spaces, with mapping for gravesites or ash scatterings. Josephson shares how repeated family encounters with death—his grandparents’ passing, his grandmother’s Lewy body...
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188 The Intersection of Hospice and Palliative Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jill Schwartz-Chevlin, MD, MBA, FACP
Hospice Explained
188 The Intersection of Hospice and Palliative Care: A Conversation with Dr. Jill Schwartz-Chevlin, MD, MBA, FACP Host Marie Betcher, RN and former hospice nurse, interviews Dr. Jill Schwartz-Chevlin, an internist and palliative physician with experience in home-based primary care, hospice leadership, and value-based care. Dr. Jill explains value-based medicine as aligning incentives with patient outcomes, especially for people with complex chronic illness, by anticipating needs, supporting symptom recognition, and preventing crisis-driven ER and hospital use that can lead to...
info_outline187 Surviving with Laughter: Angela Nissel Talks Hospice and Healing
Host Marie Betcher, a former hospice nurse, interviews writer and memoirist Angela Nissel about her book "Good Grief: Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead" and her mother’s end-of-life journey. Angela describes a complicated, achievement-focused relationship with her RN mother, who hid advanced breast cancer and feared judgment for “giving up.” Angela brought her to Los Angeles, expecting more treatment, but a doctor recommended hospice; her mother felt relief and was on hospice about six weeks. Angela shares what caregiving taught her, including learning to “just be her daughter,” navigating pain medication fears, misconceptions that hospice hastens death, a brief end-of-life rally, and the value of dignity, trust-building, and services like 24/7 care and music therapy. She says hospice became their best, most connected time together and writing later helped her talk about death and grief.
00:00 Welcome and Disclaimer
00:35 Meet Angela Nissel
03:08 A Complicated Mother Daughter Bond
04:54 Caregiving Lessons in Hospice
07:53 Cancer Progression and Hospice Decision
10:26 Nurse Identity and Letting Go
11:55 Her Nursing Career and NICU Work
14:33 Grief Writing and Dark Humor
16:21 Siblings and Hiding Illness
19:24 Changing the Fight Cancer Narrative
22:12 Comfort Meds and Hospice Myths
25:21 Terminal Rally and 24 7 Care
29:44 Inside the Book and Hospice Journals
32:09 Final Reflections and Goodbye
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1. You can use Medicare.gov to help find a hospice agency,
This should be a list of Hospice Agencies local to you or your loved one.