"You get a huge amount of satisfaction"

Friday 04 August 2023

Les Bourgs Hospice is running a series of open days over the next week to try and find more nursing staff and assistants to join the team.

Hospice Director, Jo Boyd said it will be a "good opportunity for people to come and meet some of the teams and actually have a look at us" and see what options may be available to them.

"What we don't want to be is the the island's best kept secret, and people say 'well, we had no idea that you were looking for staff'.

"We want people to know that we are and we're keen to discuss, with all of the nursing workforce, possibilities that we may have to work together."

While the hospice is open every day and night, the rotas are worked to fit around the team of registered nurses, assistants and volunteers.

Mrs Boyd said this has helped Les Bourgs maintain high levels of staff recruitment.

Pictured: Jo Boyd, Director of Les Bourgs Hospice.

"People's personal circumstances change, and they sometimes have to move off island or they need to be at home more because of family commitments, but generally people remain very committed to us," continued Mrs Boyd.

"They may reduce their hours, but they'll continue to work with us or they may become part of our bank where they can work when they feel able to, which is great for us because it means that we keep them as part of the team but they don't feel under too much pressure.

"And I think if I'm honest having been a nurse since I was 17, one of the things that we've had to all get better at is flexible working. We've all had to work smarter and more flexibly, and covid taught us that as well. But I also think people are much more mindful of our work-life balance and we have to reflect that so people want to work part time and we're more than keen to talk to them about that."

Mrs Boyd has a team of trained staff including registered nurses, nursing assistants and auxiliary staff as well as around 100 volunteers who help at the hospice or at the charity shop which raises funds for the facilities and services at Andrew Mitchell House.

"If we had to pay all those people, then undoubtedly we wouldn't be here," she said.

"They are very good at supporting us. We're very well aware, though, that we don't abuse what they do, and there are limitations to that. But they're great with supporting the nursing staff as volunteers on the ward helping with flowers, helping go around with drinks helping with kitchen duties, our support service. 

"We have volunteers on reception, so we manage to maximise what we can get them to do as much as we can. And the nursing workforce are very grateful for that because it does free them up to do the part of the job that only they can do."

Pictured: Mrs Boyd said while a lot of their patients may be elderly, they care for people of all ages, with a variety of life limiting conditions.

Mrs Boyd said the hospice relies on nurses 24/7 but they do try and work the rotas around everyone's preferences.

"If people are worried about shift work and let's be honest, if all of us have the choice, we'd rather not work weekends, evenings or nights, but the reality is our patients are here seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year, 24 hours a day so we have the staff for that. But we try and note people's preferences and what works better for them.

"Generally the team are very good at supporting one another, swapping shifts if somebody has a last minute commitment they need to make in order to make sure that we have a workforce that are content with being here but it isn't detrimental on their home life."

When it comes to her staff and volunteers Mrs Boyd has nothing but praise for them.

"They are undoubtedly our best asset," she says simply.

"It really came home to me when we had to relocate to the hospital for a while, and we had somebody in there who's husband we had looked after and I said to her 'I'm really sorry that we're not able to look after you in the hospice' and she said to me 'it's not the building, it's the people'.

"And she said 'you've got the same people, so I'm going to be fine', and I think that sums it up.

"I think the 'thank yous' that we get from the public are all about the people and they're our most valuable asset. We can't do the job without them."

Pictured: Les Bourgs Hospice receives no public funds so relies entirely on donations and fundraising to cover its £1.7m a year costs.

Recruitment has recently been challenging across every sector, and Mrs Boyd knows that the hospice is no different to any other employer in that respect.

She's hoping that running open days will give potential employees an opportunity to find out more in an informal way.

"We have got a workforce who are going to want to be reducing their hours in the future, either because of age or personal circumstances, and we need to continue to recruit into posts to ensure that we've got the right number of people to do the job.

"I think sometimes hospices are not the most attractive places for people to to come to work but undoubtedly as a nurse you get a huge amount of satisfaction. We're able to have a bit more time with our patients and their families, we're obviously able to do our job in very nice surroundings, and we are very well supported by the people of Guernsey.

"I think people sometimes think this is going to be a very sad, quiet place and the reality is we celebrate everything, every birthday, anniversaries, weddings, christenings, for both our own staff and our patients and their families. We will celebrate because those are very important milestones, there's lots of laughter and there is lots of good humoured banter."

Mrs Boyd says the hospice can also offer lots of job satisfaction and good career development with a commitment to continued professional development with funded study leave and online education opportunities.

Pictured above and top: Some of the nursing staff at Les Bourgs Hospice.

"I think we feel incredibly privileged to be able to do (what we do as it) comes with a huge degree of responsibility because this isn't a rehearsal, so if it goes wrong, it goes wrong. We don't have the opportunity to put it right.

"We're realistic about the fact that there are some things we can't change. We cannot change the fact that somebody is dying, and for the family, that's a huge loss.

"What we can try and do is make sure that experience doesn't break them, that they do feel supported, that they do feel that they can ask and question anything that they're concerned about so that it takes the fear factor out.

"When families look back on the experience, they're sad because that person is no longer with them, but they're not broken by it. They can manage to move forward with their lives and think very fondly about the experiences that they've had here."

OPEN DAYS

The open days are aimed at people who are already registered nurses, or who are training in those roles, as well as other staff within the registered workforce such as healthcare assistants, and nursing assistants.

"We're open to exploring with them to find out whether or not there could be a career here for them,' said Mrs Boyd.

"What we've done with the open days is try to make them as user friendly as possible. And we're saying to people is if they can't manage those slots because they've got other commitments, if they email us we'll organise something for them independently."

The open days will all be run in a very informal way, with no commitment expected from anyone who goes along.

"I think it just gives them an opportunity," said Mrs Boyd, "and also it gives us an opportunity to learn a bit more about what we have out there and how we may be able to make more adjustments to attract more staff."

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