Nurse Claire shares her thoughts on end of life care for Dying Matters Week 2021
Dying Matters Week 2021 focuses on the importance of being in ‘a good place to die’ with members of Team UHDB reflecting on what this means to them and how they have ensured this for patients at the end of life.
Our clinical teams across UHDB have been going above and beyond for patients at the end of life and their families, often in the most challenging of circumstances.
Claire Beighton, Associate Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, has shared her thoughts on what end of life care means to her in her role on the Nightingale Macmillan Unit at Royal Derby Hospital.
Social media is a wonderful tool, and a chain of events on Twitter led me to find the below video created by a nurse called Kimberley, a Palliative Care Nurse working to transform end of life care in London. It so eloquently describes how we can personalise care at end of life and the importance of discussing our preferences with those around us.
Watch Kimberley’s video (opens in new window) >
These discussions and opening up conversation with patients about their priorities, not only for the aims of care they receive, but also for how they wish their last few months, days and hours to be. These have been a huge part of my role within specialist palliative care over the last couple of years. I have found that helping people discuss the death they would want helps relatives and healthcare professionals prepare to support it. Throughout my nursing career, that has been the basis of my reflection of what ‘a good place to die’ has meant; being in the setting of your choice, surrounded by the most important people and photographs, having a wash using your most luxurious shower gel, warmed by comfortable pyjamas and a fluffy duvet, maybe even with your favourite music in the background.
Given that, it might sound strange to hear how watching Kim’s video, despite how very much in line with my beliefs and practice the message was, gave me a very new perspective of what makes ‘a good place to die’. It wasn’t the contents of the recording, but more the reason I’d found it that forced me to consider a new standpoint.
The first time I heard of Kim was in fact when I read a blog post from her husband, Sam, which had been shared on Twitter. Sam’s blog described the day of her sudden and unexpected death. From his writing, the grief and trauma they all experienced that day and in the months since is palpable.
Read Sam’s blog (opens in new window) >
A young, fit, woman with no comorbidities died without warning or chance to prepare. This, outside of palliative care, is the reality of so many deaths; a lack of preparation, warning or planning.
How then, in these scenarios, can we ever be in ‘a good place to die’? Kim’s own words and wisdom sum it up wonderfully when she says not to delay doing things that are important to you.
Kim’s five things she learned about dying as a nurse (opens in new window) >
I think this is key. We have no control over when we die, some of us may have warning, others will not. So I plan to use my time wisely; in a way that makes me feel alive and appreciates how tentative the concept of ‘the future’ is. I hope that way, at the end of my life, I’m in ‘a good place to die’, whenever that time might come.