PBN 2021 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Virginia Magnan | Clinical director, HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center
Warwick native Virginia Magnan was working in the nonprofit sector when she decided to go back to school to become a registered nurse.
It was an idea sparked by the in-home hospice caregivers who provided her parents with services before they died in 2000 and 2005. Magnan was inspired and wanted to do what they did – provide end-of-life care.
At 49, she earned a nursing degree from the Community College of Rhode Island, advising anyone else who makes a change later in life to “just do it and don’t let anyone dissuade you. What is on the other side is so important.”
A creative person entering the sometimes-scientific nursing field, Magnan followed a mentor’s advice to audit a difficult class, meaning she attended without receiving academic credit.
“When you are an older person, you are a little bit more certain. You keep your head down, do your work and just get through it,” she said.
While in nursing school, Magnan had other family members receiving care at HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center in Providence.
“I became a nurse to work in hospice,” she said. “But seeing HopeHealth confirmed where I was supposed to be working. I hadn’t even known this facility existed. It’s the only one offering this level of care.”
Magnan worked at Lifespan Corp. in Providence, and before that at South County Walk-In and Primary Care in Narragansett. Once at HopeHealth, she rose through the ranks, first as a referral nurse in 2015, then as a patient care manager, then elevating to clinical director in 2020.
Along with a staff of 80, she’s supervised COVID-19 safeguard implementation at HopeHealth while keeping visitation in place. At the same time, construction was underway to expand the facility to 30 beds.
Magnan loves her job, her employer, those she works with and the work she does.
“Hospice can be a very life-affirming profession,” she said. “You get to appreciate being able to offer people dignity in their final days.”
