Anna Lambert

Hi my name is Anna Lambert, Im a nurse, I work in Knockeen Nursing Home in Barntown in County Wexford. Knockeen Nursing Home was opened just over 20 years ago, it has 49 bedrooms and 2 of those bedrooms are funded by the HSE for palliative care. I think this nursing home is unique in that we have 2 self sufficient rooms that are there for those patients that are coming from a busy hospital setting.

A good example of good palliative care is a lady that had dementia and wasn’t able to talk. She couldn’t communicate her pain or her distress, the only way she could communicate was by crying out or by moaning. It was really important for us to get her symptom management right with good pain control, anti-anxiety medication but also we had to make sure that her pain wasn’t psychological pain, we looked at her as a person, we felt it was really important to create a calming, soothing environment . As much as it was important to get her pain control right, it was equally important to have a calming environment, to play relaxing music, you could tell that, that instantly she would relax, she would stop moaning, she would stop crying out, she would be able to rest, she would look more comfortable. That is the really important part of palliative care is giving comfort and peace to those who need it.