End of Life Care Specialist Nurse Debbie Snooke
Work to improve care for dying patients and their families at Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has been enhanced with two specialist nurses starting work this month.
Debbie Snooke and Rachel Preece have been appointed as End of Life Care Specialist Nurses on a six month secondment after The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, secured external funding for the roles.
Debbie and Rachel will work on a job-share basis to support the work of End of Life Care Facilitator Jules Lewis.
Jules said: “We had some amazing applicants for the role and it was actually a very difficult choice selecting the successful applicant, but in the end we chose two – Debbie and Rachel – and I am delighted to have them on board. They will be so helpful in making sure more staff are supported across the two hospitals to deliver great care to patients and their families at the most difficult time.”
The appointment of Debbie and Rachel comes a year after SaTH launched the Swan Scheme for End of Life Care.
End of Life Care Specialist Nurse Rachel Preece
Since then the Scheme has gone from strength-to-strength with the creation of dedicated ‘Swan Rooms’ for patients and increased training for staff.
The scheme has also seen ‘Swan Boxes’ placed on every ward. The boxes are given to the families of dying patients and contain relative information, basic toiletries for the patient or their loved ones, a small pack of tissues, a small ribbon-tie bag for jewellery or a hair lock, and a bag for any property.
They can also be used as memory boxes for people to keep special items such as photographs, jewellery, certificates and cards.
Jules said: “We have spent the last 12 months embedding the Swan Scheme so every ward has a Swan Box. We have adapted and added more items into the box including a pen and paper and a ring box, when required.
“In our Emergency Departments, we have also started using a Swan paper bag with useful items such as relative information, tissues, a jewellery bag, pen, paper and Swan property bag, as the Swan Boxes and their contents are not always appropriate in this setting.
“We have an End of Life Champion on every ward and 1,700 staff have received training.”
Much of the work of the Swan Scheme is supported by the Swan Fund, which was set up by Jules, and other donations.
Recently, two recliner chairs were purchased for the use of relatives, thanks to a kind donation from Severn Hospice. The chairs will allow relatives to rest and spend long periods of valuable time with their loved one.
One chair is on Ward 17 at PRH and the other on Ward 28 at RSH. Through the Swan Fund, two more chairs will be purchased for Wards 25 and 27 at RSH and more will be purchased for PRH as more Swan Rooms are opened.