Nursing Ethos : St Richard’s Hospice
There is considerable national debate about the public’s perception of nursing and how patients and their loved ones want nursing care to be provided with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. These values are well established and reflected by the St Richard’s Hospice nursing teams in everything they do …. but how do they go about transforming these values into daily actions?
For us it is quite simple .As a hospice and a charity, our approach is inspired by the founder of the hospice movement, Dame Cicely Saunders, who was very clear about the aims of hospice and nursing care …….‘You matter because you are you . You matter to the last moment of your life and we will do all we can, not only to help you die in peace but also to live until you die’.
Our philosophy of nursing care is achieved by five key objectives
- Time to Care .Our generous staffing levels enables nurses to have the time to care. Our nurses build relationships and understand the patient and their clinical and psychological needs so nursing care can be provided in a way that is unique to the needs of individual patients.
- Communication. Our nurses listen to patients in order to achieve shared understanding that enables them and their loved ones to be actively involved in their care.
- Supporting loved one and carers. This is seen as an essential role for nurses during the many emotional demands experienced in coming to terms with diagnosis and death of a loved one.
- Valuing and supporting our nurses. As an organisation, we are very proud of the clinical leadership and expertise displayed by our nursing teams and we continually strive to support them to improve nursing care by developing clinical skills through education provided by our in house education department.
- Valuing patient and carer’s feedback. This helps us to continually improve the standard of nursing care that our teams provide.
But how can we be confident our nurses are kind and provide compassionate, dignified and safe care? The proof lies with feedback received from family members.
‘Your team thought of everything possible to ensure that she had the best possible care and that of course included her family and friends who visited her. It is a rare gift to be able to discretely nurse a patient so that he is enabled to present himself in the best possible way and enjoy his last remaining days with dignity and grace. Congratulations to you all your team for achieving perfection – and I do mean perfection- in your standard of care offered to those who are fading from us and to those who must watch and mourn and making end-of-life care so dignified, uplifting and serene.’
June Patel Care Director