Having worked at Isabel Hospice for over 34 years, Wendy Freeman has supported and helped countless families as our Care Home Educator. Her role is to support all the care home settings in East and North Herts with educational support around the recognition of deterioration that may lead to end-of-life care.
The role is varied and supports many topics such as dementia awareness, medication and symptom control. She also assists in supporting families to give them the chance to discuss end-of-life care and strives to dispel myths around death and dying.
“We want everyone to plan, control and speak about their future care needs in regard to their health whilst they can, so that they can have a peaceful and dignified death in the future when they can no longer tell us what they want.” she says.
Wendy begins her day with a quick coffee whilst reading through her emails to see if the educational training sessions that she hosts are still running. She then reviews her resource folders that support the staff training she delivers such as CSCI (continuous subcutaneous infusion) pump training, dementia awareness and communication training.
“These folders contain all I need to support staff in their learning and for them to read and refer to. They also form key resources for family members that enable them to make a good end-of-life care folder full of helpful information. We always carry a wealth of resources, especially for families, to help them to understand what we are talking about and backing up all that we do.” Wendy explains. “Sometimes we take leaflets that can be used to help understand programs such as ‘Start the conversation’ as well as resources that help to impart my knowledge of palliative and end-of-life care.”
Soon after she has packed these resources she sets off into the community, to a care home setting somewhere based in East or North Hertfordshire.
During these visits, Wendy delivers a variety of sessions that enable care home staff who are looking after those who are dealing with life-limiting illnesses, to learn skills such as syringe pump training and oral hygiene.
“We offer syringe pump training which is a helpful device that administrates medication to someone to control their symptoms when they can no longer swallow.” Wendy says. “Everyone can learn how to keep people comfortable and free of symptoms using this and other devices. The staff then have training on how to manage these and the care home is encouraged to purchase them, so they have these readily available for residents who require them in the care home settings.”
Wendy also delivers oral hygiene sessions that equips staff and family members alike with the knowledge on how to look after one of the most important parts of the body; the mouth. This session also shows devices and equipment to enable a clean, moist mouth.
Wendy explains “If this isn’t comfortable, you cannot smile, converse or eat, and at end-of-life and this is so important. Some people would like this done with their favourite tipple so the last thing they taste is something they enjoy.”
One of the most important parts of Wendy’s visits is the education sessions that surround our ‘start the conversation’ programme, that include discussions such as “What do you want to happen if you became unwell?”.
“We hold these meetings for the service users and their families in care homes to allow them to discuss future wishes and plans, so we can do the best for them when they can no longer tell us. This then empowers people to die in the place they wish and prevents hospitalisation when it isn’t required, and we do all that we can to support them.”
Wendy’s day comes to an end with more emails, collaborative working and further engagement for the future.
“From a smile to a hug, just knowing I may have made a difference to someone is always an amazing experience. The day is never dull, and every day is a school day!” Wendy finishes.
