What matters most?

Angie

Angie has worked for Marie Curie for nearly 6 years and loves her role. Previous to her starting her dream job she had always been a carer and worked for the NHS for 14 years in community spinal injuries and community high-dependency teams.

Angie waited 10 years to get her dream role.

“It’s the best job ever. I have always wanted to work for Marie Curie. I love it! People think that Marie Curie is just about cancer care but we’re not, we do all kinds. My mum always said to me that I could be in a room full of people and by the end of it I’d know everybody’s life story. That’s just the kind of person I am, and I think that’s why I’m able to do this job. I get on with all my patients and I love it.”

To Angie there is nothing more important than caring for people who are coming to the end of their life, her desire is to make them feel at ease. “If I told people that I was a midwife everyone would say what a lovely job you're bringing someone into the world, but I feel honoured to be with someone going out of the world. Everybody must die, and so many people don’t talk about it. You don’t need to fear it. A good death comes down to the person telling you just before they pass that they have had a fantastic life. You are only here for a short while so go out and enjoy life. That’s it really.”

Within her role Angie works nights. Visiting the home of the patient that she will be caring for at the time. Giving peace of mind to families, when they need rest, that their loved ones are cared for “I work from 10 o’clock in the night until 7 o’clock in the morning. If we have a new patient I will go in and usually introduce myself to the family first, as they are often the ones that answer the door. After that, I will introduce myself to the patient. The family will do a handover on the care and tell you what they expect of you. I will ask if there is anything more they need to know about us and the service we offer. Usually, the family will retire to bed around 11 pm, as that is why we are there, to give them a rest. If the patient is awake, we will chat about day-to-day things. I really like to hear their life stories and if they’ve got photos around that’s even better because we can chat about the photos. It’s nice to know about the life they lived before they were ill.”

She often is amazed by how the family have had a good night’s sleep and what a positive effect that has. “You'll be surprised how many times they come down in the morning, we've had a fantastic sleep because they know that somebody's there. They’re safe in the knowledge that there is someone there with their loved one and if any help is needed, they will be notified straight away.” This assurance can help families to unwind and that is what can be so important. Angie can often see, even as she first walks through the door, the weight being lifted from the family as they are able to take a break.

Finding one of the complications of palliative care at home can be administering extra medication at night which can be difficult. “As a healthcare practitioner, I can’t give all medication, I can give some if there’s a chart, but sometimes I’ve got to phone out of hours and wait for them to come out to administer medication. They’re very good in out-of-hours but there is only so much they can do. If people want to die at home through their own choice, they can and we just try to make it as comfortable as possible.”

Acknowledging the need for great collaboration between teams providing care is an important issue for Angie. Everyone should be on the same page centred around the patient. It's also incredibly important to her that patients have the choice to die at home.

“A lot of people want to die at home, many that I have seen lately have previously been in hospital and the staff there are so busy that getting to spend time with the patients is difficult. More carers are needed to help fulfil these wishes for individuals to die at home and I encourage anybody who has ever considered care work to take up the role as it is incredibly rewarding.” Finding personally that she receives more satisfaction doing her job than finding it financially rewarding! Ultimately better pay for carers is important to also encourage the right people into the role that we as a society need.

Often Angie builds relationships with patients and the families that she has cared for. The length of time spent with each patient can vary from days to years. “Sometimes it can be quite hard, often when sad things happen. I go into work mode to ensure everything is done but once I finish being in work mode it can hit me like a freight train. I know every layby on Anglesey, sometimes I will sit in the layby and cry or catch my breath whilst thinking about it. It can be difficult but Marie Curie are very good and offer very good counselling and will always reach out to offer it. Every single patient is different and some patient deaths have stuck with me longer than others but at the end of the day I just get on with it.”

Some strains of the job can be felt working in a remote location like Anglesey. For example, there are still places without any phone signal or single-track roads in places. Anglesey has one nurse and one health carer working in an evening covering a large geographical location. Being in a rural community is a different setting to work in as opposed to cities and more built-up areas. Sometimes nurses must travel from Bangor and as far away as Caernarfon so everything can take time. Having more resources on Anglesey will be beneficial. “It’s a case of just having to get on with it. There isn’t any other choice. Some areas have a Marie Curie rapid response but we don’t. Our hub is in South Wales so I think they just look at a map and say it's 25 miles so that will take 30 mins to travel but up here on the Island it's not like that.”

Angie is very proud of all the fantastic work Marie Curie does. Although in her role she is a lone worker she is constantly in touch and supported by her colleagues and feels that she and her colleagues have Marie Curie in their hearts and that is why they do the job. To her, what matters most when somebody is nearing the end of their life is that they don’t die alone! “Death is a huge part of life and something we all must do; I don’t like the thought of anyone dying on their own or that the patient is stressed at the end. Having someone there holding their hand is priceless.” In an ideal world, she would like everyone to pass away happy and pain-free with their family and loved ones around them. We come into the world with support, we should leave it with the same level of love and support.

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MARIE CURIE

Marie Curie helps people to talk, plan and prepare for end of life care. Their frontline nurses, hospices and free support line help people through their final years, months, days and hours of life. They also offer a bereavement service for the people who you leave behind after you die. Their researches, policy experts and campaigners constantly fight for a society where everyone gets the best experience possible at the end of their lives.

To learn more about Marie Curie, click here.

Source: https://mariecurie.org.uk

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