Northern Ireland to get another palliative care advanced nurse

Marie Donnelly is set to become one of the first advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) in palliative care in the country, after she was supported to undertake a master’s in advanced nursing practice by end-of-life charity Marie Curie.

“I hope that the ANPs in palliative care are going to become much more commonplace than they are now”

Marie Donnelly

Once she qualifies, she said she hopes to use her expert knowledge to educate all staff on what good palliative and end-of-life care looks like.

Ms Donnelly, who has more than 30 years’ experience in nursing, had been working as a clinical nurse specialist in palliative care within the Western Health and Social Care Trust before she began training to become an ANP.

She told Nursing Times that it was her background in district nursing which made her want to pursue palliative care nursing.

“End-of-life care was always very special,” explained Ms Donnelly.

“I think people are in a vulnerable place at that time, the person themselves and their families, and they have seen the value in the nursing care that’s delivered both by district nurses and nurses on the ward.

“I suppose I got a lot of professional fulfilment working with [end-of-life care] patients.”

Ms Donnelly is one of two palliative care nurses in Northern Ireland who has been supported by Marie Curie through the advanced nursing practice master’s programme.

The charity partnered with the Community Foundation of Northern Ireland to enable the nurses to undertake the qualification.

Ms Donnelly explained that becoming an ANP was the perfect role for her to progress in her specialty, while still remaining in a patient-facing role.

She said: “Sometimes to go up in nursing you have to go into management, and I was never interested in that.

“I wanted to be with people, with patients and families.

“So to do the master’s practitioner course seemed to be that you’re able to develop your career, your autonomy in your role but still remain at the patient’s bedside.”

So far, Ms Donnelly is enjoying her ANP training, which she is completing at Ulster University in Belfast.

In some modules, she is studying with ANPs from other specialties, including emergency care, mental health and primary care.

“To sit in that room and see the experience, the expertise and the level of knowledge in the leadership throughout all the specialties is fantastic,” said Ms Donnelly.

“I would also say a mix of both humbling to see that but also really impressive.”

Northern Ireland has not yet got to a point where ANPs in palliative care are common, but Ms Donnelly said she was hoping that would change.

“There’s palliative care ANPs in England, Scotland and Wales, I know that, but to Northern Ireland it is new to us,” she added.

“I hope that the ANPs in palliative care are going to become much more commonplace than they are now.

“It’s going to be something I think in time will hopefully be an established role, and very much integrated into the palliative care services that are available to the people who we’re there to meet their needs.”

Once the qualifies, Ms Donnelly wants to use her ANP “expert knowledge and clinical judgement” while continuing to respect the wishes of patients and their families.

“I’m really trying to think about bringing that specialist palliative care advanced nursing to the person, where they are, rather than bringing the person to the care,” she said.

Meanwhile, she also hopes to disseminate her knowledge as an ANP to generalist nurses, so everyone has a better understanding of palliative care.

Ms Donnelly added: “[ANPs] are only the tip of the iceberg – palliative care is provided by the GPs, district nurses, the nurses on the wards [and] the nurses in the care homes.

“You have to cascade your knowledge [and] your expertise to the people you work with, so that your whole population is going to get a much better experience of the palliative care that they receive.

“What I’m hoping is that it will help us to really try and lead very much individualised person-centred care as part of a multidisciplinary team.”

Ms Donnelly appeared hopeful about the future of palliative care services in Northern Ireland and said it was “very reassuring” to see newly qualified nurses take interest in the area.

“I think palliative care is in good hands,” she noted.

“There’s huge challenges because our demographics are changing, [and] the way we work has to change to meet that.

“There’s challenges out there around recruitment and retention.

“But there’s also great passion and ingenuity in colleagues and staff.”