Bonnie Burnside has worn several different hats in her 25 years at Ohio’s Hospice. 

Currently the team leader for social workers and chaplains in the North Care Region, Bonnie has worked in the education and quality office while also serving as a home care social worker and an inpatient unit social worker.

But regardless of her job title, one thing is for certain.  

“Hospice is where my passion is,” Bonnie said. 

That commitment to providing superior care and superior services to each patient and family began before she even had a college degree. 

Bonnie was an undergrad student at Malone College in Canton when, as part of an independent study class, she took volunteer training at what was then Hospice of Wayne County. 

After graduating, she spent a few years as a hospital social worker when the opportunity at hospice presented itself. 

“Hospital social work wasn’t exactly all I thought it was going to be,” Bonnie said. “And I felt like I wasn’t using the skills that I had gone to school to learn to do. Hospice really fit that much better. It was just so consistent with how I believed people should be treated. It was consistent with everything that I was learning in social work school that patients have the right to decide what their lives look like. It’s always felt like my niche because we do get to support patients making decisions for themselves and getting to define what their good death looks like.” 

Since then, Bonnie has been committed to providing compassionate care as patients and families are Celebrating Life’s Stories^®. 

As the team leader, all the social workers and chaplains in the North Care Region report to Bonnie, who in turn provides the support for them to do their impactful work for patients and families. 

“One of my favorite things about Hospice care is that it’s a team sport,” Bonnie said. “We’re taking care of the whole patient. Social workers are trained to look at the big picture, and they’re looking at everything that makes us up as humans. Dying isn’t just a physical event. It’s not just about our heart stopping or our breathing stopping. It’s about our friends and family surrounding us while we’re going through that process. It’s about processing all of the feelings and thoughts that come along with that. Caregiving is hard and social workers really can help support the caregivers.” 

As meaningful as it is to serve patients and families, social workers and chaplains have lots to process themselves. 

“We’re willing to sit with the hard stuff and hear the anger and the guilt and the frustration and the regrets,” Bonnie said. “Sometimes patients and families don’t want to talk about that with the people that they care about because they don’t want to burden them. They can dump all that on [social workers] and know that it’s a safe place to do that.” 

And that’s where Bonnie comes into the picture. 

“My job as a team leader is to know, hey, this case is really tough. I’ve got to check in with that social worker or that chaplain to see how they’re handling that,” she said. “I want to make sure that my team is doing what they’ve got to do to take care of themselves, because if they’re not, they can’t keep doing that.” 

Like many other hospice team members and volunteers, Bonnie has had meaningful moments as a family member and not a team member. 

“I’ve had multiple family members go through Hospice,” she said. “I was the primary caregiver for my mother-in-law five years ago and it’s always humbling to be on the other side of that and to really get to watch our team at work and doing the work that they do every day for somebody that I love.” 

Bonnie’s story demonstrates the organization’s dedication to servant leadership, kindness, honesty, and compassion in supporting both patients and team members. 

Many thanks to Bonnie for her years of unwavering service.