 Hello, my name is Dawn Jacobson. I am Senior Vice President of Home Care and Hospice Services for Hackensack Meridian Health. I have been a nurse for over 30 years and started my career as a home care nurse right here at Hackensack Meridian Health over 25 years ago. As a lifelong nurse myself, I can say there has never been a more exciting time to bring your nursing skills and talents to patients and their families in the home. At Hackensack Meridian Health, we have been providing home health services for over 40 years and are leading the way by providing more care in the home, bringing new technologies and innovation and pioneering new programs that allow patients to receive hospital level care at home. Home health nursing is more than taking a blood pressure and checking medication. You are at the center of a care team and a vital lifeline for patients. If nursing is your passion and calling, then please contact us today because the future of nursing is truly in the home. I've been in the ER for almost 15 years. My home nursing career, I came out of school, jumped right into the ER, full steam ahead, enjoyed it, loved it, and surrounded by some great people, great team members, great leaders. And I took the chance on home care and it was the best decision I ever made in my life. I worked in the emergency department for a number of years. Home care nursing was an interest to me because I get to take care of patients in their regular environment. You're one-on-one with your patients. You get to really focus on that person when you're taking care of them in real time instead of having, you know, several other things going on. You're just taking care of that person. You know, you have your open heart patients who are coming home after having, you know, a sternotomy and then sent home three days later. You have your COPD years, a lot of COVID patients, wound care is involved, you know, and I've got to learn a bunch of new skills. You know, I thought, you know, being in ER for 15 years, I thought I knew everything. Being in that setting actually gives you a lot more time and freedom with the patients and their families to really make a difference in help. People were so grateful to see me when I came in to see them in their home and to help them and to really spend time with them. You work around your own schedule, not a time clock. I could leave the house when I need as long as I get to that first patient's house when I have to. I haven't missed a basketball game with my sons, a volleyball game with my daughters. This provided a work-life balance that was far more suitable at this point in my life. I have friends that were nervous about going into people's homes. You're really never on your own. There's always somebody that will support you and they take a lot of steps to make sure that we don't feel like we're completely on our own. You really leave these patients' homes, you really walk away from these patients, feeling like you left an impact on them, teaching them, educating them, guiding them in what to do and lifestyle changes.