How would you describe your role in one sentence?

I am one of the Specialty Doctors in palliative care, and I work in both the In-Patient Unit and the community.

How many people do you come into contact with?

Depending on where I’m working (and including patients, their loved ones, colleagues and students) it could be anything up to 50 people per day.

What’s the first thing you do on a standard day?

In the In-Patient Unit – Attend the handover meeting with other members of the multi-professional team to find out from the Nurse-in-charge what has been happening overnight.

In the community – Answer any urgent queries from nurses, and then start reading about the first patient that I’m going to see on a home visit.

What’s your favourite task?

I like admitting new patients to the In-Patient Unit as I can take time to find out more about them.

Which task do you dislike the most?

It never gets easier delivering bad news to patients and their loved ones.

What’s the most interesting thing about your job?

Meeting so many new people, and learning about their different backgrounds and cultures.

What do you think other people would be surprised to know about your role?

I think people would be surprised to know that not all patients admitted to the Hospice die here – we also have a significant number of patients with poorly controlled symptoms (e.g. physical, social, and psychological symptoms) which we can improve, and then get patients back home again.

What skills do you need to do your job?

As doctors, we need to be good at working in a team, honest and compassionate, and good at multi-tasking.

What have you learned the most from at Princess Alice Hospice?

I’ve seen what a difference all the different members of the multi-professional team make by working together to help improve patients’ symptoms.

Is there anything boring about your role?

Often involves doing a fair amount of paperwork, which can sometimes be boring (but very important!)

What’s the last thing you do before you leave at the end of the day?

Check in with the rest of the team to see if there are any urgent tasks to be done before leaving, and handover anything important to the on-call (out of hours) doctor.