‘’When I think about the relationships I have with people, I reflect on how I meet them at different stages of their journey and how I go alongside them throughout that time. I can meet them at the beginning and get to know them as people, not patients. It can feel like a quiet, almost invisible presence sometimes, but I’m there to support them with everything from complex symptom control, managing pain, nausea, breathlessness, the challenges of living with a difficult disease, and providing emotional support to patients and families. Like all nurses, I’m an advocate for the people I’m supporting – hospice nurses can travel with them along their entire end of life journey and we spend time discussing treatment with other healthcare professionals to clarify situations and soothe worries.  

It’s vital to build trusting relationships, because when a person first hears they’re going to meet a hospice nurse they often feel frightened and assume it’s ‘the end’. I want them to know I will support them, that they can open up and trust me with their wishes and their concerns – if I say I’m going to do something, I do it. People don’t always realise I can be supporting patients and families for a long time, maybe years, so building those close, trusted relationships is incredibly important. You start off as strangers, but I always do my best with even the little things – arranging for medication over the weekend through an out of hours’ service, for example. My patients know that when things get harder, I’ll be there for them.’’