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Hi, my name is Lauren and I have been a Staff nurse for the Mountbatten Community Clinical Team for the last 18 months. Before working in the community team, I worked on the Inpatient Unit at the hospice.

I became a nurse because my teacher at school said I would make a good nurse and I am so pleased she said that, or I wouldn’t have done it.

Back in 2018 the Mountbatten team cared for my mum. She became ill and we were caring for her at home when the Mountbatten community team stepped in to support us. At the time I was working in the hospital and my role was completely different. After seeing how the team cared for my mum, I knew I wanted to do that. I wanted to support people in the way she had been supported.

Everyone goes through death and dying, there is no-one in the world that doesn’t. Being in this role I can help make them comfortable and enable them to die how they want to.

I once cared for a patient who was at the hospital and wanted to come home to die. There was no patient transport for the rest of the day and the hospital team called Mountbatten to help. My colleague has a license to drive the Mountbatten ambulance, so we headed out to meet her family and pick her up. When we arrived at the residential home that she lived in, we settled her into her room and made her comfortable. She died that night and we were able to grant her wish to be at home. 

I find a lot of people are scared when you first visit them. They are too afraid to ask for what they want in their end-of-life care because they don’t think it’s possible. I spend time talking with patients and their families to answer their questions and to ask, ‘is that really what you want?’

People often think end-of-life care is going to be sad all the time. My team and I use many different skills, medication and holistic techniques to create an environment in people’s homes to make them comfortable. After speaking with the patient, along with their medical needs, I can ensure their psychological, emotional and spiritual needs are recorded and supported. This all impacts the patient’s wellbeing and if people access our care before they are in crisis, I can recommend using our gym, or social activities at Mountbatten. It’s not all about death. 

Being a Mountbatten nurse is very important to me. It is different to any other job I have had. Many of us like myself have experienced bereavement and I can empathise with the families. You go on a journey with the patient and the family and there aren’t many places where you can feel like that. 

Nurses like me, in the Community Team are there 24/7 providing specialist care to those who need us most. 

Click here to follow me on a night shift