St David’s Hospice nurse gave up teaching to care for the dying

Apr 14 2011 by Judith Phillips, North Wales Weekly News

AT ONE point Kirsten Foster gave up nursing to become a primary school teacher, but she soon discovered her heart really lay in caring for people with life-limiting illnesses.

So Kirsten took up a post at St David’s Hospice where she uses the expertise she gained as a palliative care nurse with the cancer charity Macmillan to make the last days and weeks of patients’ lives as comfortable as possible.

She explained: “I enjoy working as part of a caring team. I know that when I finish my shift, I am leaving patients with trained professionals I can trust.

“Nurses can be very nosey people, not only do we want to know how the patient is feeling, but we get to learn about them, their personality and their family and friends, and palliative care allows us to spend quality time with each patient.

“Working with end-of-life patients puts my own life into perspective. They are often cheerful and positive and it makes me realise not to worry over petty and trivial matters.”

Kirsten, who is a sister in the in-patient unit, has worked at the hospice for three years. In 2004, after leaving Macmillan, she temporarily decided to give up nursing and retrained at Bangor University as a primary school teacher.

To fund her university course she signed up as an agency nurse and some of her work was at St David’s.

She then signed up as a bank nurse for the hospice, and decided she preferred working with adults than children, and missed the demands of palliative nursing care.

Kirsten’s husband Paul is an emergency nurse at Colwyn Bay Hospital and although her job can be stressful at times she says it helps that he understands its pressures.

“When I go home in the evening I sometimes talk to our chickens to help me unwind,” she smiled.

How you can help

ST DAVID’S Hospice is the chosen charity of the Weekly News, and since it opened 11 years ago we have done all we can to help it offer first class end-of-life care to the people of North West Wales.

That’s why we are happy to support its Helping Hands Appeal which has been launched to raise £1m to improve and extend its services. The aim is to increase the number of palliative care beds from 11 to 14, and provide a training facility for hospice staff and NHS and private care home staff too.

This will entail building an extension to the premises and it’s hoped tenders can be invited in September.

The £1m is in addition to the £1.7m needed each year to meet clinical running costs. To help the appeal you can:

Hold a community fundraising event in aid of the Helping Hands Appeal

Donate online at stdavidshospice.org.uk, by cheque or cash

Join the weekly hospice lottery. Call freephone 0800 970 6242, or see page 2 for more details

If your donation is in aid of the appeal, please let the hospice know.