Specialist Nurse Practitioner Majella Wright from St Barnabas Hospice has won a Cavell Star Award for going above and beyond for her patients.
Colleague and Palliative Care Nurse Amanda Rogers explains why Majella is such a deserving winner.
“There are many examples where care Majella has given to patients and their families has gone far beyond usual expectations. One example was when Majella was supporting a young man with complex clinical needs which have been present with him since birth. His clinical needs have increased considerably which has resulted in multiple hospital admissions and subsequent discharges back to his home. Majella has taken the lead role in supporting all aspects of his palliative care symptom management and has worked tirelessly to support this young man and his family as he approaches the later stages of his illness.
“As part of this Majella helped to facilitate transfer to a young person’s hospice for respite care where he benefitted greatly from being able to swim as part of hydrotherapy input. When he returned home, he really missed the pleasure and pain-relieving benefits that the hydrotherapy had provided him. As a result of hearing this this, Majella set out to coordinate a plan involving other members of the palliative MDT to make it possible for him to have the opportunity to get outside into the family hot tub. This innovative idea was put forward by Majella, to allow him to recreate the benefits he gained from hydrotherapy experience at home. This took considerable time and planning, and periods where it seemed his illness would make it too difficult for him to ever be able to achieve this.
“Our team at St Barnabas South West Community Services have the great privilege of working with Majella!”
Majella reacted to winning her Cavell Star Award.
“I was very humbled and honoured to be nominated and accept the award. I always aim to empower the staff I work with to make a difference and be courageous and curious in their work and I never suspected that they had planned this for me.
“Our team is our work family. We care for each other deeply and work better together to make a difference to the people we care for. It starts with ourselves. If we do not look after each other, we can not go out there and give it our all every day. We need to value each other and tell our teams that we are all doing a good job.”