Her Story
About Jackie
Jackie Lorenson serves as Bereavement Coordinator at Endless Journey Hospice in Omaha, Nebraska. She began in the hospice field a little over a year ago as a volunteer coordinator and was promoted within three months to lead the bereavement team. Lorenson holds a master's degree in child, youth, and family studies along with a behavior science degree. Her professional path includes grief facilitation with local nonprofits such as Grief Stream and Healing Embrace, where she supported parents experiencing infant or child loss, as well as work at a child advocacy center providing mental health support. She also serves on a board of directors. Lorenson attributes her success to the support of family and friends, her own hard work overcoming self-doubt through therapy, and personal values centered on kindness, empathy, and family.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jackie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute it to all the people that surround me and support me. I also worked really hard to get here. I worked through a lot of self-doubt. I've done a lot of therapy to work on myself to prove to myself that I am deserving of what I do, and that the work that I do is important. I have the best friends in the world. My parents have taught me what's important in life, my kids taught me how to be thankful for everything I have in life, and my husband has taught me to deal with things that are difficult and not give up.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My favorite is from the person who hired me to work at the Child Advocacy Center who told me: Don't ask what's wrong with people, ask what happened to them. It makes me look at people in a completely different way. It really does make a big difference. If you just look at people that way, it changes everything.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them, if you don't feel empathy for the people that you're working with, then you're doing it wrong. It's not the case for you. Because in this field, you do not go to a person's house and seeing them as they are dying, or talking to their family about what an amazing person they were, if you are not empathetic and if you do not give them your full attention, listen to understand rather than to respond, you're not gonna get any with this.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There are a lot of challenges with hospice. You couldn't get too attached to a family. You know, and then you lose them. Sometimes I've got clients that I've been working with, and then they say well, I think that we've done all we need to do, and then I don't see them again. So sometimes doing your job the right way is hard on you.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Being kind is the best thing that anyone can do. It doesn't hurt anybody to be kind. I've always taught my kids to treat other people the way that you want to be treated. We are Catholic, and family is so incredibly important to me. I would give up everything in the world for my kids and my husband and my brothers and sisters and parents.
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