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We are looking for exceptional nurses and midwives to join our team. Register with Thornbury to access high rates of pay, paid mileage and support with revalidation.
Palliative care nurses work within a team of dedicated healthcare professionals to provide profoundly important end-of-life care to patients with life-limiting illnesses. Their care goes beyond managing physical symptoms, as they provide much-needed emotional support too.
It’s also not just patients who turn to palliative care nurses for support. Where patients are no longer able to express their own choices, families and friends may be involved in their everyday care, as well as decision-making. Palliative care nurses help make it easier for everyone involved to adapt to their situation and face the future, whatever it might hold.
Palliative care nurses, also known as hospice nurses, play a vital role in delivering personalised end-of-life treatment, care, and comfort to patients, as well as valuable emotional support to their families at the most challenging times.
In practice, the role is about improving the comfort and wellbeing of patients and their families, helping them to maintain the best possible physical and mental health. You monitor, treat, and minimise debilitating symptoms that might otherwise cause pain and distress.
Within a palliative care nurse role, common responsibilities include:
As a palliative care nurse, you’ll need to be aware of a patient’s decisions, plans, and wishes for their end-of-life care, including DNR (do not resuscitate) orders that protect people from being given CPR to restart the heart inappropriately. Although palliative care doesn’t cure their underlying illness, it can and must provide people with a dignified end of life – something we all would wish for.
The NHS has recognised the importance of palliative care and is taking an ‘ambitious and transformative approach’1 to support its delivery.
Six ‘ambitions’ have been developed to re-double efforts to focus on the delivery of personalised palliative care. These include:
The ambitions highlight what the NHS wants to see from palliative and end-of-life care. Their aim is to inspire healthcare professionals to work together collaboratively so that people always receive quality and accessible care where their needs are met, and their priorities, preferences and wishes are taken into account.
In a palliative care nurse role, you can work across various settings to support patients with their physical and mental health. Often, you will be working in or across the following locations:
As an agency palliative care nurse with Thornbury Nursing, you will typically travel to and work in different locations. This enables you to experience a number of settings and also gives you the opportunity to spend time working with different teams. This can be great for those who like variety and who are looking to explore different working environments.
The skills and qualities that are important to possess in a palliative care nurse role include:
Each day in palliative care is different, bringing new challenges. Patients may be elderly and/or living with dementia or a terminal illness, with families and friends who are understandably anxious and upset. Working alongside terminally ill patients can be tough emotionally but improving their wellbeing and making a difference to their quality of life can also be immensely rewarding.
Thornbury nurses provide palliative care in a variety of settings around the UK.
If you’re a registered nurse authorised to work in the UK and are looking to work flexibly, find out about our high rates of pay. and our other benefits. You can also register to join the Thornbury team today.
We are looking for exceptional nurses and midwives to join our team. Register with Thornbury to access high rates of pay, paid mileage and support with revalidation.