"Wolfson funding helped me live my life - and achieve my goals"

Before the days of her role at Queenscourt Hospice, as an NHS Nurse, Gemma admits that she was relatively unaware of hospice care. After initially qualifying, she worked at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital – a Cardiothoracic Centre for the North West – before moving into Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) in Southport, and subsequently, District Nursing. 

That move, says Gemma, opened her eyes to ‘a whole world’ of Community Nursing, and it was Gemma’s work with Angela, a Community Specialist from the local hospice who supported the District Nursing Team, which inspired Gemma and her career ambitions. Gemma then started putting together a plan of how she might be able to make the move into hospice care.

One specialist degree in District Nursing later, followed by a role as District Nursing Sister, then led Gemma to apply for a Developmental Band 6 position at Queenscourt Hospice.

Before meeting Angela, or working in District Nursing, Gemma says that her experience of end-of-life care was limited:

“I’d never been in a hospice – I didn’t do a hospice placement during my Student Nurse training. The experience I had of end-of-life care was always just the very end part – it was hospital based, around symptom management and some family support.

“But seeing Angela from a bit earlier on in a patient’s journey, I started understanding that palliative care isn't just about end-of-life care, it’s about providing essential support throughout the patient's journey from terminal diagnosis until they die. It’s about looking at what's important to the person, and their family, and trying to achieve that for them. It was inspiring as well as educational.”

It was thanks to another colleague that funding from The Wolfson Foundation, via Hospice UK, was identified as an avenue for developing the skills that Gemma would need to progress her career in hospice care. She explains:

“As part of my Band 6 role, it was expected that I’d embark on some education as I worked towards my specialist qualification in Palliative Care. It was my Director of Nursing, Louise, who told me about The Wolfson Foundation bursary and how to apply for it. I’d had concerns about what the cost of an entire Master’s Degree programme would be, and The Wolfson Foundation funding was exactly what I needed.

“The Terence Burgess Education Centre (TBEC) at Queenscourt Hospice has lots of information on the grant, and the university that delivers the Specialist Palliative Care modules also provided plenty of education and support about the modules.”

It’s fair to say that being able to access the Professional Development Grant from the Wolfson Foundation has been nothing short of life-changing for Gemma – who explains that without it, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the MSc programme:

“[Without the grant] I might not be where I am now on my professional development journey. It's been amazing because it has helped underpin my knowledge and skills, as well as enhancing my practise and my communication skills. This has also had a positive impact on the care that I can provide for our patients and their families.”

The learnings from her Master’s Degree course, according to Gemma, have ultimately helped reduce delays to patients in getting medications and treatment that they need. This has also elevated Gemma’s communication skills within her wider team, including the Medics, who Gemma can now update promptly with any changes to clinical and medication plans. 

“It's had a massive effect on me – on my patients, on my role, and on my employer.

“Often it's not the pain that's the problem, it's the fact that the patient can't get out of bed, or that they've not been able to go and visit their favourite place. My training has helped me to engage with patients differently in this regard, by asking such questions as ‘tell me what's going on and what we can try and do to help that?”

“Just to have somebody actively listen to you is huge, and as a Healthcare Professional, it’s really rewarding to listen to your patient’s cues and find out what it is that they're telling you – rather than what it is that you want to find out from them.”

Gemma explains that it was the success of the Wolfson Foundation-funded module that inspired her dissertation topic:

“My focus is around supporting the local hospital in their assessment and implementation of spirituality, which is so important in Palliative and end-of-life care. That’s because we don't just look at physical issues with our patients, we have to look at psychological, social, and spiritual ones too. If somebody's in a lot of spiritual distress, their pain may be managed incorrectly. They're often in a hospice or a hospital setting, when they could be at home.

“The experiences that I've had in our local hospital and what we see nationwide are telling us that spiritual assessment isn't something that healthcare professionals feel they are good at, and that there’s room for improvement. I am therefore looking forward to bringing the theory of my course into practice and helping people to develop a greater understanding in this regard.”

“So the impact of my Wolfson Foundation funding is huge.”

As she nears completion of her course at the time of writing, Gemma says that she is struck by one reflection in particular:

“I can't quite believe that I've got through it all! It’s amazing to think that I'm almost there and what I envisioned years ago when I first met Angela is now almost complete…and that I'm actually doing the role.

“The funding from The Wolfson Foundation has enabled me to live my life, whilst achieving my professional goals.”

That's something, adds Gemma, that other hospice and Palliative Care Professionals could benefit from too:

“It's really important that people are able to develop, that they're not held back in their current role because of a financial barrier. For someone to know that there is help and support out there, when they've got dreams and aspirations of what they want to do – but they're perhaps worried that they're not going to be able to achieve it – I think is massive.”

And with an ever-increasing aging population, grants like these are an opportunity for Healthcare Providers to do their part for future workforce planning:

“We don't just provide exceptional compassionate care for people referred to our hospice, we also provide support for other healthcare professionals who deliver more of a generalist palliative care service. This support for other healthcare professionals is vital, and the more people who enhance their skills and qualifications in the way that I did, the more that this expert support is available.

“Palliative and end-of-life care reaches far and wide… into hospitals, GPs, District Nursing and Care Homes...and the demand for these services is ever-growing. It’s important to encourage more people to take up professional development grants like this, so that the expertise and resource in palliative care is there now, and in the future.”

“I’d say if you're in a position to apply for the Wolfson Foundation professional development grant, and you meet the criteria and you've got a goal that it will help you to achieve – then just go for it!”

Thank you to Gemma Stead, Queenscourt Hospice, for sharing her Wolfson Foundation Professional Development Grant story.