What’s your role?
I’m one of the Team Leaders on the Inpatient Unit at St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

What inspired you to become a St Wilfrid’s Hospice nurse?
When I look back at my student days I did a couple of assessments on end of life care and pain relief in the terminally ill. So I think I subconsciously didn't realise that it’s something I’ve always been interested in.

It wasn’t until after I had children that I looked at roles in the hospice. I stepped into the building in 2014 and I spoke to a lovely lady called Ruth, who is now the Associate Director for Clinical services, and it kind of went from there. I think, for me, I felt I could be a part of something really good.

What does a typical day look like for you?
It's my responsibility to ensure the day-to-day running of the unit goes as smoothly as it can. I'm responsible for ensuring that the patients and their families are well looked after.

No two days are the same. Some days I might be looking after patients. Others I might be doing some of the work that goes on in the background, which is just as important to making sure our patients recieve expert end of life care.

What’s the best thing about your job?
Being able to bring comfort to patients. Quite often, when they come to the Inpatient unit it is because they are struggling at home or in the hospital, and suddenly they feel as if there's somebody there sorting it all out.

It's very important to us in the hospice to ask the patient and their families, ‘what is it you want us to focus on while you're here? What is important to you?’ And sometimes it might not be anything to do with the diagnosis and what's happening. I had a patient recently who wanted to celebrate his and his wife's 60th wedding anniversary. So sometimes we might look at bringing an occasion like that forward a little bit.

And, of course, my team make my job enjoyable too. It can be a very difficult at times, but we all come together at vital moments.