Latest news from Lorraine, our sponsored Children’s Hospice South West nurse
10 December 2018As part of our fundraising work for Children’s Hospice South West, we’re proud to sponsor Paediatric Nurse Lorraine Langmead.
Based at Little Bridge House in Fremington, Lorraine provides hospice care for children with life-limiting conditions and support for their families across Devon and west Somerset. This year, Devonshire Homes pledged £1,000 to support Lorraine’s vital work so we recently caught up with her to find out the impact she’s made to the lives of the children and families in her care.
Lorraine’s responsibilities have increased since we last caught up. She’s now a Team Leader within the Care Team, making clinical decisions for the children at Little Bridge House. As an experienced member of the team, she now supports students and new starters, demonstrating the special qualities needed to do her job. Lorraine’s extended role also involves liaison with the community teams, building relationships that help ensure families get the best service and as much support and understanding as possible.
As well as supporting the team and giving practical advice on care giving, Lorraine relishes the opportunity to care for a child herself. Recently, she organised for one of the ventilated young people at the house to access the hydrotherapy pool. This was really beneficial for him but required a lot of planning and risk assessment. He doesn’t get to go in the pool very often because of this but Lorraine made it happen.
In addition to caring for the children, Lorraine is also a great support to their families. She recently made the trip to the Bristol Children’s Hospital to offer a supportive visit to one of the families during an admission to Intensive Care. Their son was extremely ill, and they were so grateful to see a professional who they knew and trusted and who understands the complexities of their child’s needs.
A tougher aspect of Lorraine’s role is arranging admission to ‘Care of End of Life’ and ‘Symptom Management’ stays. Understandably, the children and families are very vulnerable at this time, but Lorraine provides fantastic medical and emotional support. At Little Bridge House, Lorraine gives parents the chance to just be parents and not carers. Parents get to enjoy being mums and dads as the medical requirements are taken care of by Lorraine and her team.
Devonshire Homes are proud to support Lorraine’s vital work and continue to help Children’s Hospice South West this winter. In addition to our sponsorship of Lorraine, we also donate £50 to the charity for every open-market sale.
For more information on Children’s Hospice South West, visit: https://www.chsw.org.uk/