A Queen’s Nurse shares her experience with her MP

The Reality of End-of-Life Care in Rural Communities

I am a Community Palliative Care and Cancer Specialist Nurse, predominately caring for patients at the end of their life in Dartmouth and surrounding villages in South Devon. This is a very rural area within the UK, which brings its own challenges in terms of geography and limited resources.

I recently took the opportunity to invite our local MP Anthony Mangnall to join me for a morning to demonstrate the challenges we face, nursing in the community every day. I am delighted to say Anthony accepted my invitation and I believe he found the morning informative, and it allowed him to gain a good insight into the reality of end-of-life care in rural communities.

In particular, we were able to discuss the considerable problems we face with lack of social care in our community and the broader implications this has on patient care and community nursing. As a result, Anthony has indicated he is prepared to help where possible and provide his support, particularly on the funding issues related to some community-based projects I wish to develop.

I look forward to continuing the conversation and encourage other Queen’s Nurses to invite their MP to join them in their working day too.

Andie Day, Queen’s Nurse

Palliative Care and Cancer Specialist Liaison Nurse, Dartmouth Caring/Dartmouth Medical Practice

Anthony Mangnall is MP for Totnes and South Devon, and he spent the morning with Andie Day on 14 April 2023.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute encourages community nurses to invite their local MP or other elected representatives to shadow them in their work, to help increase understanding about the vital role of nurses in the community.