Nurse Ellie is glad to be back...

Friday, 15 January 2021
Nurse Ellie is glad to be back...
Have you heard? we’ve got vacancies for Registered Nurses to join our team? We caught up with our newest recruit, Ellie, who after a university placement at the Hospice couldn’t wait to come back and work for us!

Ellie greeted us with a huge smile on her face, even with a mask on we could see she was beaming, her bubbly personality brightened up our day! It was lovely to see her passion for nursing and excitement at starting her new role.

Firstly, we quizzed Ellie on why she trained to become a nurse. She told us she always wanted to be a nurse ever since she could remember because she enjoys looking after people and finds it so rewarding, even more so working for a Hospice.

Ellie’s university placement was for five weeks back in December 2018. “I couldn’t quite believe how nice it was to work here,” Ellie explains.

“I can remember asking all of the nurses if they’d take qualified staff straight away because I knew I wanted to come straight back. They told me to go off and get some experience first and then come back if I wanted to afterwards, so that’s what I did. I just think the quality of care you provide to people here is so rewarding, actually being able to sit down next to people and talk to them – that’s what I enjoyed.”

After her five-week placement, Ellie went on to other placements to gain experience.

“I was on the intensive care unit for 2 weeks. I did A&E, I didn’t really like that. It was stressful and I think I’m more of a caring person and A&E is very quick with people. I like sitting down with people and talking to them about their life and things like that, but I found in A&E you don’t have the time to do things like that.

“I had a placement on acute elderly admissions which is where my first job was and I was there for 14 months and I did enjoy that, but again you just don’t have the time to be sat there with people chatting about what they want.

“For example, here when I’ve been chatting with patients you get to sit and talk to people about their lives and what they want out of their admissions, but there you’re just asking the questions and you don’t have time for them to talk about anything else because you’ve got another five people to see straight after.”

Like many others, Ellie also had a misconception about the Hospice, she told us about the time she first found out she had a placement here: “At the first point, I hadn’t had much experience and I didn’t really know what a Hospice was and I think a lot of people actually have that same perception.

“You just think ‘oh you just go to a hospice to die’ but that’s not the case at all. There’s things like symptom management so people can go home to their families. I was actually a bit nervous because I’d not had a placement like that but as soon as I got here I felt very welcome and ever since I’d had the placement I’ve wanted to come back. I remember telling people everyone that I wanted to go to a Hospice.”

After her placement, Ellie was sure that a hospice is where she felt best suited, and she decided that it was The Prince of Wales Hospice where she wanted to be.

Ellie explained how during her placement at Christmas, children from a local school came to visit the Hospice to sing carols for patients, and she loved seeing their faces light up.

Although she describes herself as an emotional person, Ellie explains that she has a good support network in her colleagues and partner.

"I have experience with end of life care before and I think you’ve just got to put a brave face on and be supportive and professional at the same time. Everyone is really supportive, if you are upset about something then you have always got people to talk to about it. It is an emotional job but I think for me if you don’t get emotional, what’s the point of doing it?"

At the start of her Hospice journey, Ellie is hoping to find a long and fulfilled career here: “It’s just so nice [working here]. Everything is so calm, you have time to look after people properly and everyone is really nice and well supported I think it’s the best place I’ve worked. It’s so rewarding you go home thinking you’ve done a good job today.”

If you are inspired by Ellie’s story and want to work for the Hospice, you can check out all our current vacancies on our website: https://www.pwh.org.uk/About/Vacancies.
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