Honestly, the perks were pretty damn intangible. Contacts with other caregivers and providers was the most useful one. Secondary, you build up community connections. There’s people in my area that have gone out of their way to help me decades after I took care of their family member. I’m still friends with some.

At one point, I worked for the home health company that was a branch of the hospital, soi had acces to their medical library, and could attend seminars and lectures that would normally be only for enrolled students (teaching hospital).

The contacts I made, back in the early 2ks, allowed me a chance to interview pathologists, coroners and medical examiners for a book I was planning to write.

So, I guess that’s more tangible than I thought lol.

But for me, I just loved being the guy that got to do the job. I was never happy it needed doing, but if it did need doing, at least I got to get in there. Since other parts of the job were a bit more difficult, having a patient that I was going to help heal was also a major boost and helped stave off burnout. Sometimes, no matter how well you handle end of life care, or chronic conditions, it grinds at you that the case only ends with death, or some other less pleasant outcome.

But wound care? 95%, you do the job and when the case ends it’s because the wound is gone, and that feeling is like crack. You get little hits along the way as the wound improves, where you get to tell the patient how much has improved, that the infection is gone, or that it shrank over the weekend. But that big hit where you get to say “I won’t be here tomorrow because you don’t need me” holy crap is that magic. I’d ride home smiling and elated.