St Richard’s Hospice has launched a new film focussing on the care and support offered to patients and families by the Community Nursing Team.
“”If I had one message it’s this: don’t be scared of us, we are here to help. We are about life and living,” says Vanessa Gibson, Community Nursing Team Manager in the film.
The aim of the film is to help address the lack of understanding about the community nursing team and the care and support they can offer. It was particularly aimed at reducing anxiety and fear which people may feel about hospice care.
The film also raises awareness of the fact that St Richard’s cares for patients with all life-limiting illnesses, not just cancer by featuring a patient living with Parkinson’s Disease.
In 2014/15 1,250 patients were supported by the St Richard’s Nurse Specialists in their own home and community.
They are highly skilled and experienced specialists who offer care and support that is tailored to each patient’s needs, including advice on managing their symptoms. The team works closely with GPs and the community healthcare teams to ensure patients receive high quality, co-ordinated care.
The Hospice at Home team works alongside the Nurse Specialists to provide care to enable patients to remain at home for as long as possible. The team offers support including crisis intervention, support to those living alone, additional pre-admission and post discharge support and carer support.
One carer featured in the film, Tricia Thomas said, “As we wanted to be at home as much as possible, the St Richard’s Hospice at Home service was absolutely tailor made for what we wanted. We were introduced by the Parkinson’s nurse of the area. St Richard’s understands the demands of this debilitating illness and worked with us in a way in which we feel that we’re in control, as much as we want to be, and we can talk about anything. There’s time to talk about how you help the person understand what is going on for them and to be able to deal with it.” ( read Tricia’s blog here)
The Community Nursing Team film – Caring for life – is the fourth in a series of videos exploring the care St Richard’s offers to patients and families. The others are Welcome to Day Hospice, Welcome to the In-patient Unit and Supporting Families.
The films can all be viewed on the St Richard’s Hospice website, www.strichards.org.uk
Read a Nurse Specialists reflections on her role
St Richard’s Hospice provides free specialist palliative care for patients living with life-limiting illnesses and supports their families. Each year the hospice team supports over 2,600 patients and family members in Worcestershire with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
Patients are cared for in Day Hospice, the 17-bed In-patient Unit or in their own homes by a specialist professional team as well as many trained volunteers.
In the In-patient Unit, specialist staff are on hand 24 hours a day to manage patients’ symptoms and where, if appropriate, patients may spend the last few days of life in comfort and dignity. St Richard’s is an independent charity and is grateful for all donations to help it to continue its work.
For more information please visit www.strichards.org.uk