Nursing at Pilgrims: What it has meant to lead through a pandemic
To celebrate Nurses’ Day 2021, we spoke to Kate White, Head of Nursing at Pilgrims Hospices, about how she and her team have risen to the challenges posed by COVID-19.
Although it has been a difficult year, Pilgrims nurses have continued to provide vital, compassionate and holistic end-of-life care to people across east Kent. The pandemic has also provided opportunities to strengthen nursing practices, which will have a lasting, positive impact on future hospice care.
How have nursing practices and patient care at Pilgrims changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began?
The pandemic has brought infection control and prevention into sharp focus. The care we give at Pilgrims has remained at the highest standard, but having to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) requires us to take more time preparing to give care rather than being able to be spontaneous.
At the start of the pandemic the policies, procedures and systems that we’re so accustomed to were changing rapidly, sometimes several times a day. It was often hard to keep up, but Pilgrims staff embraced what was needed and continued to provide excellent patient-centred care.
Pilgrims nursing team L-R: Kate White, Steve Allwright, Laura Gooch, Sheila Moorhead, Carol Lightfoot, Michelle Swann, Sam Waters and Donna Shanahan
What have been some of the challenges presented by COVID-19 and how have Pilgrims nurses overcome them?
The biggest challenges relate to our everyday communication; talking to patients whilst wearing a mask takes away the personal touch and the non-verbal communication a smile can convey. Our community team had to adapt to talking to patients over the phone rather than face-to-face visiting. This can be very difficult for both patients and staff, especially when discussing sensitive issues; it doesn’t come naturally to everyone, does it?
Nothing will ever replace the closeness of a loved one, but we have tried to offer reassurance and comfort in these very difficult times.
Kate
We also had to find other ways of communicating with relatives, as our visitors policy restricted who could come into the hospices in order to ensure we safeguarded our extremely vulnerable patients and our staff, who were keeping hospice services going. It has been very distressing for so many, but we have used technology to bridge the gap and help enable people to keep in touch.
We’ve also used the Matching Hearts project, where the patient has one crocheted heart and we give the other to the family to try to help them feel connected.
Nothing will ever replace the closeness of a loved one, but we have tried to offer reassurance and comfort in these very difficult times.
Have any positives come out of the pandemic?
As a team we’ve proved our ability to change at a rapid pace when required, to find new and inventive ways of working.
Those of us who have been in healthcare for a long time have never experienced such a coming together of so many providers, and this has had a lasting and positive impact on patient care and service delivery.
Kate
There has also been some brilliant collaborating with our healthcare colleagues in the wider community including East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, Kent Community Trust, Kent County Council and primary care services. We shared issues around capacity, PPE supplies and staffing, plus anything else we were able to help each other with. It also provided a chance to update everyone on our current situation; we called in every day, seven days a week, to ensure our patients had the best care and our staff had the best support. Pilgrims was the only charity to join this call, and from this we became involved in supporting nursing homes by teaching their staff how to use PPE.
Those of us who have been in healthcare for a long time have never experienced such a coming together of so many providers, and this has had a lasting and positive impact on patient care and service delivery.
Kate White, Head of Nursing at Pilgrims Hospices, with nurse Debbie Todd. The artwork is displayed on the ward at the Canterbury hospice. The hands are a show of unity, strength and teamwork. Staff put one hand on the paper on each shift they came in for, choosing the colour that represented how they felt. It reflects the rainbows painted by children during the pandemic to thank key workers.
What does a post-COVID-19 future look like at Pilgrims, and how will Pilgrims nurses lead patient care within it?
We’re told that the pandemic will be around for a while yet, so we will continue to provide the best infection control and prevention we can. Our infection control team, led with the expertise and dedication of nurse Debbie Todd, will ensure we are kept up to date with all current guidelines and practices. I have no doubt we will continue to deliver high quality, holistic care to our patients and their families, whatever the situation is, to the best of our ability.
Each year Pilgrims Hospices give care and comfort to over 2,500 people in east Kent who are coming to terms with an illness that sadly cannot be cured. The charity support patients to live life as well as possible until the very end, free from pain and distress.
12th May 2020
International Nurses Day: Being a Pilgrims nurse
Pilgrims Hospices is recognising nurses and key workers on International Nurses Day. To celebrate nurses from across the globe on this day Pilgrims Hospices would like to share a huge thank you to all those who are working to care for people across the world.
Pilgrims nurses have cared for 1000s of patients, their families and friends in their homes and on the hospice wards for more than 35 years. This year the east Kent community is sharing special messages of thanks with the local charity as lockdown keeps us all social distancing.
Kate White, Pilgrims Senior Nurse Manager explained: “We’ve received such heart-warming messages from the local community, it is really appreciated by everyone at Pilgrims, and of course it’s lovely to be recognised on our special day.
“Our nurses and key workers are working tirelessly to ensure patients receive the highest quality care during these difficult times. We understand how important contact is for everyone and we are doing our very best to help patients to feel part of our Pilgrims family whilst their families are caring from a distance.”
Ryan Mowat and Michelle Bennett, Palliative Specialist Nurses at Pilgrims Hospice Ashford
Sarah Brown, Pilgrims Specialist Palliative Care Community Team Lead added:
“We have the privilege to support people and their loved ones at such a key time in their lives. The loss of someone you care for deeply or for whom you share special connections can only be described as the most difficult and heart-rendering time for most people.”
Angela Padgham
Palliative Specialist Nurse
“I’m continuing to do my part and helping to support the palliative care patients in the community who we can’t visit.”
Charlotte Davies
Palliative Specialist Nurse Community Team Leader
“I have wanted to be a palliative nurse since I was 10 years old – that’s a long time! Nurses are born, not made and that is especially true of hospice nurses. To me, hospice nursing is more than just being a face or a name on a staff board. It’s the trust that people put in us to ensure they have the care and support both on the inpatient ward and in the community. It’s the understanding that we are with them every step of the way. Like Maya Angleou said: ‘People will forget your name, they will forget what you said, they will forget what you did. But they will NEVER forget how you made them feel.’ I’m proud to be a hospice nurse!”
Palliative Specialist Nurses
Pilgrims Hospice Ashford
“We are all so proud to be nurses. It is a privilege and an honour to be able to care for someone, especially to provide care and comfort to those at the end of their life. We are proud of our jobs and of the place that we work. There is no profession like it!”
Alison Wiltshire
Palliative Specialist Nurse and Community Nursing Team Leader
“I am very proud of what we do and the opportunities we have to make a real difference to someone at the end of their life and I can’t really imagine myself doing anything else.”
Rachel Kendall-Jones, Lorna Moss and Becky Baldwin, Palliative Specialist Nurses
Kelly Navarro, Palliative Specialist Nurse, Community Team
Kate continued: “Our Pilgrims community extends past the nursing and on to the greater needs of those in our care and their families. This is why we are encouraging people to think about what needs to be in place in order that their wishes can be met and carried out in a timely and meaningful manner.
“By engaging with people living with long term conditions at an earlier stage of their illnesses, we believe this will enable people to remain in control and maintain their dignity, focusing on good quality of life, especially when someone’s condition deteriorates. We’re helping our teams to manage through the COVID-19 crisis by ensuring they have sufficient wellbeing resources in place and opportunities to share their concerns for those around them with Pilgrims’ internal support network of carers and advisers.
My thoughts are; in six months time; we will be able to touch and communicate with our patients without the barrier of a mask. Patients dying in the hospice will have their loved ones with them as they take their last breath. Nurses will be able to focus on what is most important to patients, without fear and restrictions. People with cancers will seek help and support, not being fearful of COVID-19 and ‘putting up’ with symptoms. Nurses will have developed enhanced skills protecting patients, the public, colleagues and themselves, keeping safe.
Debbie Boots, Advanced Nurse Practitioner
“Our support teams in catering, counselling, domestic services and so many others are contributing vital assistance for our Pilgrims nurses; we are delighted to be sharing our special day with such special colleagues.”
Pilgrims Hospices is Still Here, Still Caring. The hard work and dedication do not go unnoticed; now, more than ever, we appreciate you! You can help the Pilgrims nurses to continue with their specialist end-of-life care by making a donation to the Still Here, Still Caring campaign.
Thank you, your hard work does not go unnoticed.
Happy International Nurses Day!
Each year Pilgrims Hospices give care and comfort to over 2,400 people in east Kent who are coming to terms with an illness that sadly cannot be cured. The charity support patients to live life as well as possible until the very end, free from pain and distress.
