A career in compassionate care at the end of life | MY staff stories

Chris has worked for the Trust for just over 18 months and works as an End of Life Care Facilitator – a role he feels genuinely connected to. 

Along with his colleagues in the Specialist Palliative Care Team, he helps patients and families navigate one of life’s most difficult journeys.

What is your current role?

As a member of the Trust’s Specialist Palliative Care Team, it is my role to support patients and their loved ones when the person is in the last hours and days of their life.

A truly holistic role, which involves helping with symptom management, psychological, social and spiritual support as well as helping people achieve their preferred place of death. The role also means I am often supporting family members who are experiencing a very low point in their life.

The role is not all clinical, it’s my job to empower and educate other staff in the Trust to provide end of life care to the highest standard through role modelling, education, audit and quality improvement projects.

How did you get into nursing?

I qualified as an RGN in 1993 (crikey!) and worked with small children under 18 months old, but at the same time I was in a band. I ‘left’ nursing to try out a musical career but like many, failed, so back to nursing.

A job for a band 5 at Wheatfields Hospice in Leeds looked interesting and I ended up staying there for nearly 10 years as I’d found my role. Next came a job at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust as an End-of-Life Care Nurse initially, and later as the lead nurse for Advance Care Planning. I enjoyed my time at Leeds, but the travelling was eating into my work/life balance.

When the role at Mid Yorks (MY) was advertised it seemed ideal as I live directly over the road from the hospital and now really feel part of the MY family.

What are the best bits about your role?

It’s a tough job where I am immersed in death and dying on a daily basis – we can go from one family who are suffering straight into another tough situation, so we really have to look out for one another.

Someone once said “you are doing the job you were born to do” and she was correct – I’m rubbish at most other things, so being able to help a patient or a family in their darkest hour can be very satisfying. I often leave a room feeling that I have not really helped, only to be informed I had made a huge difference to someone’s last hours or days.

When people are experiencing symptoms and we intervene, help the person become settled and comfortable and see the relief families feel, I know we have done a good job. When patients and families are left devastated with bad news, if we can help just the smallest amount then we have made a difference.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to do a similar role?

• Get as much experience as you can with palliative patients – go with the palliative care nurse when they see a patient and learn good practice
• Become an end-of-life care champion for your clinical area and lead and inspire others to deliver the highest standards of care
• Join one of the local hospice’s bank staff and gain clinical experience in the speciality
• Keep an eye on our careers site, our Specialist Palliative Care Team have a range of roles from band 3 senior healthcare support workers, band 4 care co-ordinators and band 6 and 7 clinical nurse specialists. 

What do you enjoy the most about working at Mid Yorks?

The people – a great, down-to-earth group of people. Because I live in Wakefield, I now feel like I work in my own community.

Any other comments

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak about the role.

Can I take this moment to also shout out to the other members of the EoLC team – Meg, Julie and Lauren who work tirelessly to ensure our patients here at MY receive the best End of Life Care we can deliver and to the rest of the Specialist Palliative Care Team who do amazing work supporting patients with life limiting illness in our hospitals and communities.

Find out more about working for Mid Yorks