Working at the Hospice – Nathan Lasham
We talked with Nathan, our Specialist Practitioner, about how he feels working at St Wilfrid’s.
I’m Nathan, I currently work as a Specialist Practitioner in the hospice community team and I started here in April 2022.
I joined in a development role as an associate practitioner completing an 18-month programme of competencies working up to become a Specialist Practitioner in the CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist) Team.
How did you come to work here?
I’m not from a nursing background and my previous role was as a paramedic. Fortunately, there are many more opportunities available to paramedics and allied health professionals in varied healthcare roles. St Wilfrid’s have employed paramedics in the development role within the CNS team before and the job offered a great opportunity to apply transferrable skills and previous experience. The role also allowed me to undertake further education and training to progress within the palliative care setting.
What was your experience with hospices before working here?
I had some experience with hospice care and treating patients at the end of life from working with the ambulance service, but my knowledge was limited mostly to symptom control and patients who were not under the care of a hospice.
How have you found working here?
It’s great, it is a lovely and brilliant team who are very supportive at all levels of the organisation. There is a good team working ethos. I am enjoying working for St Wilfrid’s.
Why here?
I had an interest in end of life care, it was something I hadn’t encountered often in my other role but the experiences were usually challenging but rewarding. The development role offered a great opportunity to gain new skills and increase my scope of practice. As a specialist practitioner, there will also be the opportunity to undertake further training such as non-medical prescribing in the future.
What do you love most about your job?
I think the teamwork. It’s a really great team, as I said really supportive, it’s probably one of the best parts of being in the community team.
What does Hospice Care mean to you?
My previous role was very clinically focused, whereas this is much more about the person, what their needs are, and what we can do to support them. It’s not just focusing on their medical conditions or illness, it’s looking at the person and getting to know them. It’s much more personal.
What would you say to someone considering joining the hospice team?
Do it. Working for St Wilfrid’s has given me the opportunity to undertake additional training and education to broaden my skillset, work with a great team with lots of new challenges as every patient’s needs are different. I would recommend it.
It’s lovely to see the standard of care that the team deliver, it’s such a high standard of care. Staff really do care about their patients and it’s so supportive.
