Hello, my name is Angela Bell and I am a Nurse Specialist for Palliative Care in Newcastle’s Community Team.
My role is to support complex palliative care patients to be cared for in their preferred place in partnership with the GP, District Nurses and hospital specialist teams.
Day to day we visit and assess patients in their homes with regular review depending on needs.
Our services provides a rapid assessment for palliative care patients 7 days per week.
Tell us about your career in palliative care
I have been a qualified nurse for 15 years, I spent 18 months nursing on medical and surgical wards in hospital before moving to community nursing – I always had an aspiration to work in the community to provide care to people in their own homes.
Palliative care is very prominent in the role of a community nurse, providing generalist care to support palliative patients at home and for end of life care.
I advanced my skills and completed a post graduate diploma in District Nursing which gave me an opportunity to lead a team and also support individuals to develop their nursing skills in palliative care.
During my time as a District Nurse I completed a module in palliative care at Northumbria University which helped to focus my knowledge underpinning practice in the field of palliative care. I spent 10 years in District Nursing providing hands on care and support to many patients delivering end of life care at home.
Whilst there are many challenges in the community it has always been a privilege to me to help patients and their families and support them in their own homes
What makes you passionate about what you do?
From my own personal experience when I was 18 I helped to care for my Dad at home when he received end of life care, it was so important that we were able to honour his wish to die at home and this experience has never left me, shaping the practitioner I am today.
After the experience I had gained in District Nursing I felt ready to apply to be a Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, this felt like a natural progression for me having a keen interest in palliative care and to further my knowledge and skills.
I had worked collaboratively with the palliative care team for many years and felt they showed such skill and compassion I really wanted to learn more from them to help patients.
Being a specialist nurse feels like the best fit for me, to continue to have patient contact alongside providing education to others and embracing the wider scope of palliative care.
What do you think is the future for palliative care?
As a team we would like to continue to provide high quality palliative care to all and allow patients to be supported in their preferred place of care and death.
I am currently completing the V300 non-medical prescribing qualification which will help to develop my role and involve further clinical assessment and prescribing to my patients, ensuring that high quality, safe and effective care is provided. This impact will help me as an individual practitioner to overcome challenges within practice and support others with management of patients with complex needs.
In future further skills such as non-medical prescribing will help to enhance our role and underpin our practice to provide specialist support and advice to other professionals and services.
I am also passionate about providing education to clinical staff to share our knowledge and focus to support other services and practitioners to deliver a high standard of palliative care to all.
And finally…
I was really privileged to be involved in delivering a presentation to the Newcastle Hospitals’ non-executive Directors board, this was a fantastic opportunity to highlight the work of palliative care across the Trust.
