How To Become A Hospice Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a hospice director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A hospice director oversees and manages the hospice programs and medical staff in providing excellent inpatient, home care, and palliative services to patients. They create, monitor, and implement various strategies and care plans that ensure that their patients receive end-of-life care while honoring their wishes.

Their responsibilities also include making medical reports, conducting assessments, and organize administrative activities in the facility. They direct and guide the medical staff in carrying out care plans to manage and ease the patients' symptoms and pain. Some patients in the facility may be suffering terminal illnesses, and the hospice director must confirm that their families clearly understand the course and possibilities of the care plans.

People in this line of work must be dedicated and detail-oriented. It is also important that they possess strong leadership, management, and social skills. Pursuing this career path requires a bachelor's degree in nursing, social work, or other related fields. At least three years of managerial experience is also mandatory for this position. On average, a hospice director earns $28.1 an hour, which is equivalent to an annual salary of $58,441.

ScoreHospice DirectorUS Average

Salary

7.0

Avg. Salary $90,235

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.1

Growth rate 28%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 6.88%

Black or African American 11.04%

Hispanic or Latino 14.80%

Unknown 4.28%

White 62.27%

Gender

female 84.42%

male 15.58%

Age - 47

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 47

Stress level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a hospice director

Explore hospice director education requirements

Most common hospice director degrees

Bachelor's

41.2 %

Associate

32.7 %

Master's

16.7 %

Start to develop specific hospice director skills

Skills	Percentages
Home Health	38.94%
Quality Care	13.41%
Patients	12.93%
Hospice Care	3.21%
Hospice Program	2.94%

Complete relevant hospice director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New hospice directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a hospice director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real hospice director resumes.

Research hospice director duties and responsibilities

Lead the QAPI team focusing on pain and symptom management, time of death care, medication management and call response.
Provide oversight to the entire clinical operations of the branch.
Transition agency to EMR from paper system.
Gather statistical data and conduct quarterly QAPI meetings with all offices and the core team representatives.

Get hospice director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a hospice director. The most common roles before becoming a hospice director include staff nurse, registered nurse team lead and registered nurse case manager.

Prepare your hospice director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your hospice director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a hospice director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable hospice director resume templates

Build a professional hospice director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your hospice director resume.