Jo and Caroline were appointed by the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme a year ago to work as an integral part of its project in Lincolnshire. The ‘Discharge Community Link Nurse initiative’ joins the Rapid Response Team and the Palliative Care Coordination Centre in the list of interventions being piloted by the project in the region.
Jo and Caroline are responsible for ensuring timely discharge for patients with palliative care needs, and coordinating the whole discharge process, including arranging home care, communicating with healthcare professionals in the community (including GPs, District Nurses, Macmillan Nurses and Community Matrons). They sometimes accompany patients home, helping them get settled.
Jackie Booth, Lincolnshire Project Manager, said:
“Jo and Caroline’s work is all about treating palliative care patients as priority by taking patients out of the mainstream discharge pool and fast-tracking discharge to their preferred place of care.
“When a patient is in the last days of their life, this time is crucial and delays in discharge can mean that they die in hospital, which is the last place that most people want to be.”
Over the year, the pair have been making a huge difference to patients and their carers. In a letter of thanks to Jo, a carer, John, wrote:
“You seemed to be the only one who made it possible for Betty to come home. If you hadn’t acted I believe Betty would have died alone, in hospital.”
Another patient’s family wrote to Caroline:
“Thank you so much for your kindness and professionalism in helping us get Annie home. She had a peaceful and dignified death with her family surrounding her. It meant the world to us.”
March 2007
