Hello, my name is Catherine Telford and I am a Nurse Specialist for the Freeman Hospital’s Palliative Care Team.
My key roles are to provide specialist advice and support to patients, carers, and professionals across both the hospital and community settings for palliative and end of life patients at the point of need.
This could be for both physical symptoms of the condition and or supporting with the emotional/psychological impact.
I assess, plan and implement specialist individualised plans of care for patients who are palliative and/or receiving end of life care.
I also oversee continuity and co-ordination between both hospital and community settings to ensure a seamless patient journey. This includes facilitating fast track discharges to preferred place of care/death for patients for patients who may only have hours/days to live.
I provide ongoing and accessible teaching to varied groups of professionals appropriate to their role which can be both formal and informal and I take an active role in service development.
This takes place through regular attendance at sub-groups and multi disciplinary team meetings to ensure we are able to improve patient experience and act accordingly inline with clinical audit and feedback from incidents and complaints.
Tell us about your career journey
My nursing career began at the Newcastle Hospitals Trust after qualifying as an adult nurse from Northumbria University.
My career progressed and I transferred into the community setting where I pursued a career in both District Nursing and as a Community Matron. This is where my passion for providing palliative care began.
I had the privilege of providing both palliative and end of life care in the patient’s own home. This included supporting an individualised plan of care often managing complex symptoms/medication regimes to avoid of unnecessary hospital admissions and facilitating preferred place of care and death.
This inspired me to apply for my current position as Nurse Specialist in Palliative care where I take a lead role in assessing, implementing, and evaluating specialised and individualised plans of care for patient receiving palliative and end of life care.
What are your aspirations for Newcastle’s new strategy
My personal aspirations for this role are centred around both the Trust’s and national drivers to deliver high quality Palliative, End of Life and Bereavement care.
I feel that the drive to deliver and improve palliative and end of life care is embedded within the teams across the trust. We strive to see each person as an individual and ensuring that they can access care fairly. We ensure that care is co-ordinated between services.
Our new strategy outlines the ambitions of the Newcastle Hospitals to deliver high quality Palliative, End of Life and Bereavement Care to all patients for whom it is required and their families and carers.
It applies to all adults with life-limiting illness accessing hospital and community services provided by the trust and builds on the successful delivery of the 2015-2018 Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy, based on understanding of local needs and national directives.
