St Michael’s Hospice launches drive to recruit more Registered Nurses

The team provide skilled hands-on nursing care, palliative care assessment, advice and compassionate support to ensure the holistic needs of people in Hastings and Rother, living with advanced illness, are met right up until they die.

Flossie Mayatt Interim Community Nursing Team Leader, spoke about her nursing career progression at the Hospice.

She said: “Joining St Michaels Hospice was a turning point in my career, I was warned by previous colleagues that leaving an acute setting to work in a hospice would de-skill me, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. With such a supportive team behind me, my knowledge, skills and confidence has thrived, I am able to be the Registered Nurse (RN) I have always hoped to be.

“Palliative care has become a vital component of any nursing setting now, be that acute, community or nursing homes, but often without the resources to support this fully. So, to work somewhere with specialist palliative care at the heart of it, is very special indeed. Working in some settings, you can feel like a jack-of-all trades, so to specialise and really focus my knowledge and skills has been really exciting for me. “It is an honour to be able to provide the quality of care we can here, the resources and services available to our patients and families are so complete you really see the difference you are making every day, it is an incredibly rewarding role. What I loved most about being an RN within specialist palliative care is it is not just about tasks or time-slots – it is very person-focused and I’ve been able to help arrange weddings, film nights, spent time with a patient writing down their beloved recipes to be passed down in the family and even snake-proofed a room.

“It is also really refreshing to work in an organisation like the Hospice, investing in the development of its staff, not only through education but also through career progression. With the support and encouragement of my line manager and the extended leadership team, I have been able to progress my career from Registered Nurse into Ward Management, and am currently undertaking a secondment as Nursing Lead for the Community, which is a really exciting opportunity for me.”

“Our Director of Organisational Development, Caroline White says “being able to offer nurses a rewarding career and opportunities for personal development is a satisfying aspect of my role. We offer a supportive and inclusive work environment and have recently reviewed our employee pay and benefits package to ensure it supports the wellbeing of all our employees”.

To find out more about the Hospice’s benefits package and the Clinical roles available visit their jobs website www.stmichaelshospice-jobs.co.uk or call their HR Team on 01424 457970.

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