Sheena brought a lot of knowledge and experience to St Barnabas when she joined us, and she shares it with colleagues and others to make end-of-life care as complete as possible for patients.
Sheena joined the St Barnabas team in 2010 as Deputy Service Manager based in Grantham, caring for patients in their own homes, and before that, she’d spent several years on an acute surgical ward. But Sheena always had a soft spot for palliative care, especially for supporting patients and families in the community.
So there was no way she was passing up the chance to support the Service Manager as her deputy and help develop the then-newly established Hospice at Home team.
Helping build and shape that team was just the start of Sheena’s significant contribution to the Hospice over the years. Today she’s Senior Clinical Services Manager for South Lincolnshire and has several achievements under her belt, while bringing people together for better care has been at the heart of everything Sheena has achieved.
She even played a part in bringing her hero Jonathan Van-Tam to St Barnabas to open Novak House, the Boston Wellbeing Hub. Ironically, Sheena was on the Isle of Man that day and missed him!
Going the extra mile is in Sheena’s DNA. Despite taking the time to build a relationship with a patient in the community, he still refused to have Hospice nurses in his home. But Sheena’s persistence paid off, and eventually she made it to the hallway. And that’s when she spotted several steam train pictures on the wall. So knowing he was a steam train enthusiast, Sheena spent the next few weeks learning everything she could about steam engines. It did the trick! Soon after, she made it to the living room, where they’d sit and talk about trains, and Sheena would slip in the questions about his pain and how he was feeling before getting back on track with steam trains. In a similar scenario, Sheena devoured the entire Wisden Dictionary of Cricket!
Sheena goes the extra mile for St Barnabas outside of her role too – literally. Sheena and her cycling club have raised thousands of pounds for the Hospice, encouraging others to do the same.
Sheena’s intuition and natural ability to build relationships have helped her bring together an outstanding team too. It’s exceptionally important to her too and she credits many of her achievements to the team. Although she takes full responsibility for Egg-gate…that’s a story for another time!
In her own words…
“We all belong together as one big team – nursing, maintenance, volunteers, admin and more. The most important thing to me is empowering patients and allowing families to be resilient and cope with an uncertain future. And by working together, we do that.”
To see all 40 Faces and their stories, please visit: https://stbarnabashospice.co.uk/40faces
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ehospice UK edition, Editors Note:
This is the eleventh in a series of 40 articles celebrating the founders, staff members, volunteers and supporters who have helped contribute to the vital care St Barnabas Hospice, Lincoln, provides to those living with a life-limiting or terminal illness and their families.
These stories will find parallels across all other hospices around the UK. If you wish to share your news/stories/blogs then please send them to info@ehospice.com.
To register for the weekly ehospice newsletter which brings together stories from around the world please go to: https://ehospice.com/register/
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St Barnabas Hospice is a local independent charity, and every year they support more than 10,500 people across Lincolnshire.
They deliver free, high-quality, compassionate end-of-life care and support to people living with a life-limiting or terminal illness, their family and carers.
St Barnabas offers the patient and their family hospice care and support via: specialist inpatient care, care at home, day therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, complementary therapy, welfare advice and bereavement support.
All the services are free. St Barnabas needs to raise over £6m a year to provide its support and care. Over 900 volunteers play a crucial role in the charity’s success.
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