Meet the team: How Weldmar Community Nurse Tash has found her ‘home’ with us

By Tash Brown
Weldmar Community Nurse

From a child I had always wanted to become a nurse and help people. In 2003, after having my son, I went to work as a Healthcare Assistant for a local care agency, out in the community during the evenings.

In 2005 I had my daughter and was a single mum of two children. I decided that I wanted to give them, and myself, the best future possible so I started Access to Nursing when my daughter was just two months old. I then went to the University of the West of England to start my studies to become an Adult Nurse, and relied on a good friend and parents for childcare. It was hard work and there were lots of tears, but you can do anything if you put your mind to it.

I qualified with a BSC (Hons) Adult Nursing and started my first job at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

In 2008, during my studying my Nan was taking ill suddenly and sadly didn’t have a good end of life experience in hospital. Although I had I written my dissertation on end of life care and I didn’t want anyone else suffering like that, I didn’t feel ready to go into palliative care.

I did a variety of jobs from intensive care, agency, nursing home and district nursing where my passion grew to ensure patients had symptoms well managed.

My need to go into the palliative care profession was enhanced after my grandad died a year ago, and again I felt that he didn’t get the right care that he deserved.

A lot of people don’t realise that majority of hospice work is within the homes of patients. This is one of the things that can be important to people – being in their own surroundings and being with their loved ones.

As a clinical nurse specialist it is a challenging job, however it is a job I find highly rewarding. Being able to have the time to sit and learn about the life of my patients and their loved ones and understand who they were before they became unwell is important to me, and its an honour and privilege to learn so much about my patients and the life they had before becoming unwell with a life limiting condition or terminal illness.

This enables me to look at my patients holistically, taking into account their physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual needs to ensure they have the best quality of life for themselves and their families. I work in collaboration with GPs, district nurses, community rehabilitation teams, oncology nurse specialists, and colleagues at Weldmar – consultants, Patient and Family Support Services, the complementary therapy team, and Weldmar at Home, to help deliver that holistic care and support the individual needs of my patients.

I feel privileged to be working for Weldmar Hospicecare as a Weldmar Community Nurse. From the moment I joined, everyone was so welcoming and friendly. Nothing is ever too much trouble. The training induction was amazing and so well put together. There are lots of opportunities to grow and develop, from bitesize training sessions on different subjects every week, through to me being able to undertake the European Certificate in Essential Palliative Care to enhance and deepen my knowledge.

There are opportunities for us to reflect on our experiences and have support, and the support I have had has been out of this world – my colleagues are all brilliant at what they do. We are all here for our patients, and have the same goals. We only have once chance to get this right for them.

I have found my home and I am forever thankful.