Celebrating our team on International Nurses Day

In this blog:

• Developing and training our nursing team
• Improving the future of children’s palliative care
• What’s Nurse’s Day?
• Working at Chestnut Tree House

From Sharon:

“When we think about nurses, it is usually their care, compassion and kindness that come to mind first. But there is far more to nursing than these ‘soft’ skills. Behind these values are highly competent medical professionals who possess a wide range of other attributes, ranging from clinical skills to advanced practice. Nurses are also communicators and leaders, with the ability to effect real change and advocate for patients.

I am proud of the diverse team of nurses we have here at Chestnut Tree House. Our people come from adult, learning disability and paediatric backgrounds and all of them bring different, valuable skills to the team. This year, two members of the Chestnut team finished their nursing associate training, and our next stage of workforce development is developing non-medical prescribers and introducing advanced care practitioners to the team.

Developing and training our nursing team

“Since Chestnut Tree House opened in 2003, we have had to adapt to reflect the changing needs of the families we support. Children with life-limiting illnesses are living longer, fuller lives thanks to the great strides being made in medical research. A large amount of work goes into maintaining a skilled workforce with continued clinical skills training such as looking after children with tracheostomies and ventilators, or those who rely on nutrition through gastrostomies.

But the training doesn’t stop there. Our staff need advanced communication training using communication aids, eye gaze equipment and Makaton. We train our staff in caring for different medical conditions, looking after children with learning disabilities and those with challenging behaviours.

I want to celebrate nurses’ professionalism and leadership in ensuring we meet the needs of children and their families. Nursing leadership is what ensures safe, quality care – and nurses also play a key role in service transformation. Nurses can be powerful leaders in advocating for patients and ensuring systems and processes are responsive to their needs. Chestnut Tree House is going through significant service transformation led by nurses, using evidence, literature, data, service user feedback and engagement to shape our service delivery and devise and implement strategy.

Improving the future of children’s palliative care

One of the most rewarding parts of my role is to develop nurses. I strive to empower our people to be critical thinkers, lead quality improvement initiatives and implement new ways of working. In everything I do , I try to educate, innovate and inspire the team, ensuring the future generation of nurses will meet and advocate for the palliative care needs of children and young people. There is a quote I love from Dame Yvonne Moores, a global leader in nursing, who urged leaders to “Identify talent in others, nurture and grow it so that one day they will be better than you.”

Nurses should be proud of their title. We are in a position of great privilege and responsibility. We must use our knowledge and our voices to influence the future health care of our children and young people. This Nurses’ Day, I celebrate and give thanks to my team and all those nurses around the world working to provide and improve care for patients.

Working at Chestnut Tree House

A nursing role at Chestnut Tree House is varied and rewarding. It’s full of fun and laughter as well as poignant and challenging moments. A lot of people have the misconception that hospices as sad, depressing places- but it’s not the case. Chestnut Tree House is vibrant and full of life! Find out what our staff think about working here.