At Prospect Hospice, we provide outstanding, personalised and compassionate care for everyone in Swindon, Marlborough and the surrounding areas affected by a life-limiting illness, completely free of charge. For more than 40 years, we’ve been a dedicated, non-hospital, end-of-life care service for patients and their loved ones - around the clock, every day of the year. Our mission is to ensure that anyone can access the best possible expert care whenever and wherever they need it – whether at the hospice or in their own home. As a charity, we only exist because of the generosity and support of our amazing local community.
Find out about the range of end-of-life care services that we offer to patients and their families. These delivered free of charge and are designed to provide compassionate, personalised support during every stage of a life-limiting illness in every kind of care setting, to anyone who needs it.
We couldn’t do what we do without considerable support from our local community. Find out all the different ways in which you can support Prospect Hospice, including fundraising, volunteering and purchasing from our shops. All contributions are greatly appreciated and enables us to deliver care that is free of charge to our patients and their families.
Our café sits at the heart of our hospice in Wroughton and serves a range of delicious home cooked meals to suit all tastes. Whether you're looking to catch up with friends over lunch or relax with coffee and cake, our Heart of the Hospice café has you covered.
Whether shopping with us in person or online, or donating your pre-loved goods, we thank you for supporting us through our shops where you help to raise around £2million a year for Prospect Hospice.
We pride ourselves on being a great place to work and we're always looking for outstanding people to join our team at the hospice across all areas of the charity.
Prospect Hospice is the leading provider of education and training for end-of-life care in Swindon and north Wiltshire. Working closely with you, our colleagues within partner organisations, we want to ensure that the very best care is available to everyone facing the end of life. This is why we provide education and development opportunities, all of which aim to encourage learning and build confidence in end of life care and support.
8.30am
I arrive at the hospice and start the day in the therapy team. The first thing I do is log on to the computer and print off the inpatient unit handover for the therapy team for the day. I then check my emails and log onto our patient database to see if there are any tasks and or new referrals to the service.
9.30am
We have a team handover following the morning multi-disciplinary team meeting to find out what tasks are needed from the therapy team for the inpatient unit.
9.45am
I then make sure that all the patient notes and appointments are set up for the volunteer complementary therapist who is coming in today. I make sure that the room they will be seeing patients in is ready for them and they have all the resources they need to provide the complementary therapies. This is something we offer to patients and is either Reiki or a gentle hand or foot massage called M-technique. I am also trained in this and can offer this to patients on our inpatient unit.
10.30am
Today I am heading out to visit a patient in the community to provide a walking aid for them and to demonstrate some equipment that one of my occupational therapy colleagues has prescribed. For this patient it is a bath lift, which helps them to get in and out of their bath independently.
12pm
I return back from the community visit and check in with the volunteer complementary therapist that all of their appointments have gone well. I then input the complementary therapy sessions on our patient data base and also write up my visit to the community patient.
1pm
Time for a break for lunch! I have lunch in the Heart of the Hospice café, which is always an opportunity to have a chat and catch up with colleagues too.
1.30pm
This afternoon I am supporting the lymphoedema service and I have an outpatient coming in to use a machine called the biocompression machine. This machine simulates a gentle massage which can help to soften someone’s legs which are swollen due to lymphoedema.
2.30pm
Now another change of scene and this time onto the inpatient unit to work with my physiotherapy colleague to do some rehabilitation with one of our patients. We are working with this patient to increase their mobility and confidence in moving around.
3.30pm
Back in the office to write up my notes from the outpatient and the inpatient. This is also chance to check any phone messages, and check any tasks that my therapy team colleagues may have given me.
4pm
I need to check the waiting list for the complementary therapy service and make some phone calls to book some new appointments for patients for next week.
4.30pm
One further task for the day is to complete the hand hygiene audit for the therapy and family support team. This is an important spot check to make sure the team are following the hospice protocols for hand hygiene.
5pm
Before I finish work, I make sure I leave any tasks on our system for my colleagues to follow up in the morning. I also check the inventory of the equipment we hold in a substore from the Swindon Community Equipment service to make sure that we have an up to date record. We use this substore to provide equipment such as commodes and toilet frames at short notice for any patients who have had a sudden change in their condition.
5.30pm
My day at work comes to an end and I head home.