Nurse returns to Hospice Care after retiring ‘too early’

Elaine Reid started working as a Healthcare Assistant in the Inpatient Unit at the Hospice in 2024 but her story is a very interesting one. Elaine kindly shared it with us:

“I have been a nurse all of my working life and I have spent 95% of my career working at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge where I originally trained when I was 18 years old.

Cornwall

At the end of 2017 I made the decision to retire early and went to live in Cornwall with my twin sister, Susan – who is also a nurse. For the first few months life was great and it was like being on holiday. However, I quite quickly realised that I really missed working in the NHS and that I maybe I was too young to retire. Therefore, I went back work at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro providing the same service that I did when I worked at Addenbrookes, where I was as Pleural Nurse Specialist, which is part of respiratory medicine but also supports many oncology and hepatology patients.

Covid and Grandchildren

Then in 2020, COVID struck and patients were reluctant to go into hospital and the service that I provided went very quiet. At the same time, my daughter in Cambridge, had a second baby, and I decided her need seemed to be greater than that of the Pleural Service in Truro. So, I decided to leave the NHS and come off the nursing register.

Initially I travelled back and forth from Cambridge to St Ives, in Cornwall to help when needed with my lovely grandchildren and I also supported the COVID issues, joining the temporary register to help with the COVID vaccinations. After five years of a great life in Cornwall, my husband and I decided to move back up to Cambridge as the draw of our grandchildren was too great.

At first I looked after my grandchildren and I was occupied and felt extremely valuable and my life had a great purpose. When my last grandson went to school I felt quite redundant and I decided I needed to do something that gave my life more purpose. I tried a few things one of which was voluntarily working as a Classroom Support Worker in a primary school but what I am is a nurse. I think that’s because I’ve been a nurse for most of my life and it is central to my persona. But…. I’d come off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register and therefore I could not practice as a qualified nurse anymore….I thought, ‘Well, I can’t be a nurse, that’s it’. That’s when I first thought of working at the Hospice as a Healthcare Assistant.

Working as a Healthcare Assistant 

When I came here I found it was such a nice place to work! Really nice staff and a supportive, caring environment. I’ve been working on the bank as a Healthcare Assistant since October last year [2024]. I didn’t think I would want to work nights but since starting on the bank I have done some nights and they are quite manageable but I mainly work day shifts. I just really enjoy the job.

People outside of the Hospice will often ask me why I would want to work in a hospice because they perceive it as a sad place associated with death and dying but the hospice is about quality of life and experiencing moments of joy. The Arthur Rank Hospice is a really gentle environment full of a highly skilled team and careful, quality care – where there is time to listen and space to be able to make a difference to people.

Return to practice

Although I loved being a Healthcare Assistant supporting patient care I realised that I do want to do that little bit more, I wanted to go back to being who I am – a nurse. So, Ward Manager, Jenny Oakes, suggested a few options and now I’m doing the ‘Return to Practice’ course, which will take me about six months, I am required to undertake hours in practice under supervision and some distance learning academic work with Plymouth University. The University team are very welcoming people and the process does not seem to be too onerous. I have to do a several academic assignments, a numeracy test and be observed and assessed directly undertaking certain aspects of practical ward work here [at the Hospice]. As long as I am successful I will go back onto the NMC Register – for how long?… who knows?…. but I still feel that I have so much to give even if it’s only for a few years.

I’ve now worked a couple of shifts as a ‘Return to Practice student’ and it’s all coming back to me. There’s a terrific feeling of, ‘I’m back again!’ as a nurse, because ever since I came off the register, I’ve had considerable regrets. I think it’s because I’ve spent my whole life being that person and I don’t feel ready to go out to pasture just yet and I’ve got a lot to give and just for now I want to give it.

I’m really proud to be a nurse! There will be a time where I decide I will retire, but it isn’t yet.”

What would you say to somebody who’s thinking about working in a hospice?

“I’d say go and spend some time in a hospice and meet the team. I think you need to be a certain type of person to want to work in a hospice, not all nurses would want to. If you had said to me ten years ago about working in a hospice, I might have thought, ‘No, I don’t want to be involved with that kind of sadness’. But it actually isn’t a sad place to work. It’s a happy place to work. There is sadness but there’s a lot of quality of care here, quality of care for patients and quality of care for the relatives and next of kin and, very importantly, quality of care for each other.

So, I would say anybody wanting to think about hospice nursing, don’t be put off by the thought that it’s a place where people go to die because yes, people do die in the hospice but they live well with the highest possible quality of care until the end.”

If you would like to work at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity please see our current vacancies: https://careers.arhc.org.uk/