“Giving someone the best life, however long they have left, is a privilege.”
Karen Brown began working at Beaumond House in 2014 as a bank nurse. Her background was acute nursing in intensive care units in Sheffield and Lincoln but she’d always wanted to work in a hospice.
“My grandad died when I was about 20, I was training to be a nurse at the time. My ambition to work in end of life care evolved from there.”
Initially Karen continued to split her work between the intensive care unit in Lincoln and Beaumond House but she “was drawn to the hospice, it gets under your skin.”
In 2018 Karen took up her current role, Clinical Nurse Lead, a position that offers a lot of variety: supporting the nursing team; Day Therapy Lead; clinical duties; writing policy.
“The joy of being a small organisation is that it’s easier to implement change. When people come up with great ideas, they don’t need to go through layers of bureaucracy, we can easily put them in place.”
Karen says the Beaumond House team plays a huge part in making the hospice the incredible place it is. She credits not only the staff but all the volunteers of which there are over 130.
“This place attracts a certain type of person, people really want to work here.”
This ethos is important to Karen because she is determined all patients who walk through the doors at Beaumond House have the best time here however long they have left.
“Hospice is a barrier word. People are worried when they arrive but it’s so good to see people relax and embrace this environment. There’s a lot of laughter.”