The Clinical Lead for the Hospice at Home service at Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice is revealing what it is like to support people dying at home.
Lou Dangerfield, 46 from Gloucester, hopes by sharing her experiences she can encourage more nursing and care staff into the palliative care profession to join her growing team.
“It is an absolute privilege to be invited into someone’s own homes at the end of their life,” shares Lou. “We are visitors in their home at the most vulnerable time of their life. People open up more and you see the real person in their real family environment. Over the years I have met some many wonderful and interesting people, and it has been an honour to care for them.”
But when Lou tells people about her job, she says she often gets the same reaction.
“When I tell people about what I do for a living most people tell me they could not do it. I respond by telling them what a privilege it is to be part of people’s lives at this point in time. Working in palliative care really is not what most people would expect – it is an amazing area of care to work in.”
“You are seeing someone at their most vulnerable, and we have one chance to get the care and support we offer them right. Achieving this is so rewarding; working in palliative care is the best decision I have ever made.”
Lou trained to become a nurse at the University of the West of England.
“Back when I was training I thought I wanted to be where all the action was, working on an Intensive Care Unit or in A&E,” she shares. “If anyone told me back then where I would end up I would have laughed. But the truth is palliative care it is what nursing is all about. It’s empathic, caring and supportive and it is a highly skilled area of nursing.
“In palliative care we don’t just care for the patient, we support the whole family – even more so when providing care in peoples’ homes. We fully concentrate on our patients’ needs and their families’ needs.
“In palliative care you get to know your patients, their personalities and their life stories and I love that about my role – we see the whole person and we care for the whole person.”
After qualifying in 2003, Lou decided to join Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice as a member of the bank team.
“I started my nursing career at Sue Ryder as a member of bank staff alongside my main job working on a short stay surgery ward. On the surgery ward there was such a quick turnover of patients that I didn’t get to know my patients. When I joined the team at Sue Ryder I felt like I could give more. I had more time to give the care and support that was so needed. This was what I had trained for as a nurse.”
“I enjoyed palliative care so much I moved into hospital palliative care and worked out in the community too. Then I did a bit of GP work before working in oncology. It was here I decided it was time to ‘come home’ to Sue Ryder. It was the whole ethos of the charity which sparked my interest in palliative care in the first place.
“At Sue Ryder I learnt so many things. I wanted to come back and give back for what Sue Ryder gave to me in those very early stages of my career.”
Now working at the charity as Clinical Lead of the Hospice at Home team, Lou leads and supports three Sue Ryder Nurses and 18 Senior Healthcare Assistants providing end-of-life care to people.
And with research* from Sue Ryder in 2022 finding almost three quarters – 74% – of people who knew they were able to make a choice about where they died saying they would like to die at home, Lou is keen to speak to nursing and care staff interested in making the switch to palliative care to join the team as Sue Ryder hopes to give more care to more people.
“I want to say to anyone working in care or nursing right now that is tempted about making the move into palliative care please come and speak to us to find out more about what Sue Ryder is all about. You can call us on 01242 230199 or email: leckhampton@sueryder.org to arrange a chat.”
Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice at Home team is currently recruiting for a Senior Nursing Assistant.
For more information on what it’s like working in palliative care with Sue Ryder visit www.sueryder.org/palliativecareers.
