A Nurses Point of View

Caroline is one of the nurses in the Hospice Day Service.  She wanted to share her story with you about how she became a nurse in palliative care and why she works for Hospice in the Weald.

Working at the Hospice Day Service happened quite by chance. Having worked as a District Nurse 20 years ago, I was looking for a new challenge. The Hospice in the Weald was still in the planning stages and having commenced a Diploma in Palliative Care at Brighton University, a year in I realised this was an area I very much wanted to work in.

 I applied for a job as a Staff Nurse at another hospice, working on their Inpatient Unit for four years and then a seconded community post for two years. After the birth of my daughter Alice, I took a break and while on leave I noticed the Hospice in the Weald were advertising for bank staff. I felt this was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.

 I joined the Hospice in the Weald and worked on the Inpatient Unit as a bank staff nurse for a year or two. One day whilst at work I was asked if I could do some shifts in the Day Centre to cover for sickness. The extension was just being completed and after a couple of months, once worked had finished and the extension opened, I applied for a part-time position in which I have been for the last 6 and half years.

 Over that time things have changed dramatically and the Hospice Day Service, as it is now known, has grown into a busy, flourishing unit, offering patients and their families a variety of services, activities, support groups and expertise.  I have the opportunity to meet patients and their families with a broad variety of life-limiting illnesses and journey with them, which is an enormous privilege.

 I am very grateful to be working in a place where I want to be.