Meet Senior Staff Nurse, Lauren. Lauren has signed up to do a Skydive in aid of Willowbrook Hospice to help raise some much needed funds.
We caught up with Lauren to find out why she wanted to take on this challenge.
“I have worked for Willowbrook Hospice for seven years now. When training to be a nurse, I spent some time as a student on placement at Willowbrook, which I think is where my passion for working in palliative care started. When I qualified, I worked at Whiston Hospital and was often allocated palliative care patients. I really felt I was making a difference and my desire for caring for patients who needed palliative, and end of life care grew, so when the position came up at Willowbrook, I jumped at the opportunity.
We have no typical days on the ward – every day is different as our patients will all have individualised routines that we accommodate.
I normally work three long days each week. The shifts are varied and work well around having a family. I have two young children aged under 5 and have great flexibility in my hours to create a good work/life balance.
Within my role I take charge of shifts, attend ward rounds and cascade communication to my colleagues. I administer medicine and I provide support to my patients and their families.
I can honestly say I love my job. I am incredibly lucky to work alongside such a fantastic team. We work very closely together and always help one another when needed.
Across the hospice, we look at each patient with a holistic perspective. We don’t only treat their physical symptoms, but we also look at each patients’ needs, hopes and goals to see what we can to help improve their life – this could be from offering the use of a device to help them ‘taste’ when they are unable to physically swallow food and drink, to bringing the outdoors in and potting some plants from their room.
We truly care about every patient that come through our doors.
A lot of comments we hear on the ward is, “We didn’t know this service was here.” We are unique in the care that we provide and are so proud of the level of care that we can give. It is phenomenal given how little we receive in funding, how much we can support our community. We support families of our patients for as long as they need it, no matter how long ago they accessed our service.
Since working at Willowbrook, I see life from a different perspective.
Our patient’s will often speak fondly of their memories, not usually about a car they drove or clothes they wore, but their life experiences, love they have found or lost along the way and their family/friends who they have shared their lives with.
These experiences last, long after we do and although the Skydive has been a massive push out of my comfort zone, I am looking forward to the challenge and how I will look back on the experience for years to come.
I would love to meet my target of £1,000. I fully understand how much is needed to fund our hospice. It is heart-warming to see family members and friends coming together after a family member has received care from us, and how they have raised money as a way of saying thank you.
Whether it be from funeral collections, an event they attend, visiting our hospice shops or simply to support our service, the community backing that follows is incredible. We are truly grateful.
One of the main challenges I think we are faced with, is how there is a lack of knowledge around what palliative care is, and the work that a hospice can do therefore I hope my Skydive will shed some light on this too.
Our community is simply extraordinary, please spread the news about the good work that we do, please continue to support our events and our fundraising challenges, and if you would like to help me to reach my target, any donations would be hugely appreciated!
Due to the current situation with Coronavirus and for the wellbeing of our patients, we kindly ask that all monetary donations are paid direct to our bank account, via online access to Nat West Bank:
Alternatively, use the DONATE NOW button that appears on each page of our website.
To donate £5, text HELPWILLOWBROOK to 70450.
