Paradigm Health’s Hospice Nurse Ashley Meldahl starts patients on the right path by answering the tough questions and calming your fears.
“I do have a global perspective about caregiving and healthcare, but I am able to translate that to care right here in Central Indiana. I would tell families searching for a hospice care team that we are doing the right things here for the right reasons. I wouldn’t entrust the care of my own family to anyone other than Paradigm.”
If you or a loved one is beginning your hospice journey, Paradigm Health’s Ashley Meldahl may be one of the first “faces of comfort and care” you see. Meldahl works as a hospice and urgent visit admit nurse and she is often meeting with patients and families and spends whatever time is needed to answer some hard questions, calm fears and anxiety, and to share that Paradigm is with them every step of the way.
“Most important during my initial visit with pstients and families is to listen and show compassion,” shares Meldahl. “While we may be reviewing medications and discussing goals, I try not to get caught up in a quick pace but to slow down and to make sure we take the time to make sure they know that this admission is not a transaction but a partnership as we focus on enriching each and every day’s quality and comfort of life.”
Meldahl graduated from Indiana Wesleyan with a nursing degree but counts some of her experiences during her time in college as great preparation for her future career. Her senior year she studied abroad in Zambia, Africa and spent time delivering babies, assisting in surgeries, caring for patients and was one of a team of first responders to a charter bus crash. After college she worked in a hospital setting caring for neurology patients and then in a long-term care facility caring for patients there.
“I’ve been with Paradigm for over four years now and I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else,” shares Meldahl. “We are a family and we come together to take care of those who entrust their care to us. And, we take care of each other. Paradigm strives to be the provider of choice and the employer of choice. It’s not just the leadership team that focuses on that, it is the whole team. A collective effort of people working together to achieve the same goals.”
When not at work, Meldahl loves spending time with her family and enjoy being outdoors for long walks, creek stomping and fishing. She also enjoys traveling and going on mission trips. And, just like her college trip that provided so much global care insight to the work she does today, she has returned to Kenya four times, Zambia, Haiti, Panama, and Mexico.
“I do have a global perspective about caregiving and healthcare but I am able to translate that to care right here. I would tell families searching for a hospice care team that we are doing the right things here at Paradigm for the right reasons,” Meldahl shares. “I wouldn’t entrust the care of my own family to anyone other than Paradigm.”
