Careers
The art of listening Following in her mother’s footsteps, Liz Charalambous was inspired to work with older people. With 30 years’ nursing experience, she speaks to Clare Lomas about the importance of balancing evidence-based practice with intuition. Now she inspires others with her passion for the specialty through writing for publication OLDER PEOPLE’S nurse Liz Charalambous’s first experience of caring for older people came at the tender age of ten; her mother was a sister on a geriatric ward in the 1970s and Ms Charalambous and her father would spend Christmas Day there, sitting with patients and helping to feed them. ‘It was a lovely atmosphere, and I always wanted to help,’ she says. ‘Then when my grandma was in hospital when I was a teenager, she would wait for me to visit so that I could help with her personal care. I started to think then that maybe this was something I could do.’ Ms Charalambous, who now has more than 30 years’ nursing experience, is a staff nurse in health care of older people at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, a post she has held since September 2009. Training She started her nurse training in 1984 at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the same hospital her mother trained at in the 1950s. After two years as a staff nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where she worked in neurosurgery and intensive care, she moved to Queen’s Medical Centre where she worked mainly in health care of older people. An eight-year stint in clinical trial work followed, but nursing older people was always her first love. ‘The complexities of caring for older people mean no two days are ever the same,’ says Ms Charalambous. ‘It can be NURSING OLDER PEOPLE
challenging caring for people with cognitive impairment, such as dementia and delirium, because you have to work hard to gain their trust. But I love spending time with patients and helping them feel better.’ Delirium research Ms Charalambous has just completed research on implementing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines to prevent delirium – part of a wider study involving eight hospitals in England with the results out later this year. She already holds a degree from the Open University, and in September starts a PhD in research into dementia at the University of Nottingham. A lifelong advocate of balancing evidence-based practice with intuition, Ms Charalambous says an experience ten years into her nursing career – when she pushed for a computed tomography scan for a dependent patient who presented with an ‘unusual clinical picture’ – has always stayed with her. ‘It was 20 years ago, so it wasn’t as common then, but the doctors finally agreed to the scan,’ she says. ‘It turns out the patient had a brain tumour. He was operated on and recovered, and it was wonderful to see. He came back to see the nurses on the ward and he knew all of us from when we sat and talked to him when he couldn’t speak.’ One thing Ms Charalambous wishes she could change is society’s negative perceptions of older people, and older people’s care. ‘Negative media coverage means you can find yourself
at a disadvantage with families, who fear the worst,’ she says. ‘But once they see you are working hard to help their loved ones, they start to trust you and relationships can flourish. ‘Older people’s nursing is seen as an undesirable specialty by some nurses, but for me it is a real privilege. We need to start valuing older people more,’ she adds. Patience, kindness and fun Ms Charalambous says she works with an incredible nursing team, who go above and beyond the call of duty for their patients every day, led by an ‘inspirational’ ward sister from the front line. ‘My advice to any nurse wanting to work with older people is to find a team that will support you,’ she says. ‘Concentrate on developing your clinical and communication skills, and listen to your patients. You also need patience, kindness and a good sense of fun.’ As well as holding down her clinical role, Ms Charalambous is a published author. She has written extensively for the nursing press, including Nursing Older People’s sister title Nursing Standard, and has been published by the British Geriatrics Society. She is passionate about spreading best practice and innovation through writing, and recently set up an online publication group at her trust to inspire more nurses to disseminate their work. You can request to join the Facebook group at tinyurl.com/o6o8bxd Clare Lomas is a healthcare journalist April 2015 | Volume 27 | Number 3 41
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The art of listening Following in her mother’s footsteps, Liz Charalambous was inspired to work with older people. With 30 years’ nursing experience, she speaks to Clare Lomas about the importance of balancing evidence-based practice with intuition. Now she inspires others with her passion for the specialty through writing for publication OLDER PEOPLE’S nurse Liz Charalambous’s first experience of caring for older people came at the tender age of ten; her mother was a sister on a geriatric ward in the 1970s and Ms Charalambous and her father would spend Christmas Day there, sitting with patients and helping to feed them. ‘It was a lovely atmosphere, and I always wanted to help,’ she says. ‘Then when my grandma was in hospital when I was a teenager, she would wait for me to visit so that I could help with her personal care. I started to think then that maybe this was something I could do.’ Ms Charalambous, who now has more than 30 years’ nursing experience, is a staff nurse in health care of older people at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, a post she has held since September 2009. Training She started her nurse training in 1984 at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the same hospital her mother trained at in the 1950s. After two years as a staff nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where she worked in neurosurgery and intensive care, she moved to Queen’s Medical Centre where she worked mainly in health care of older people. An eight-year stint in clinical trial work followed, but nursing older people was always her first love. ‘The complexities of caring for older people mean no two days are ever the same,’ says Ms Charalambous. ‘It can be NURSING OLDER PEOPLE
challenging caring for people with cognitive impairment, such as dementia and delirium, because you have to work hard to gain their trust. But I love spending time with patients and helping them feel better.’ Delirium research Ms Charalambous has just completed research on implementing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines to prevent delirium – part of a wider study involving eight hospitals in England with the results out later this year. She already holds a degree from the Open University, and in September starts a PhD in research into dementia at the University of Nottingham. A lifelong advocate of balancing evidence-based practice with intuition, Ms Charalambous says an experience ten years into her nursing career – when she pushed for a computed tomography scan for a dependent patient who presented with an ‘unusual clinical picture’ – has always stayed with her. ‘It was 20 years ago, so it wasn’t as common then, but the doctors finally agreed to the scan,’ she says. ‘It turns out the patient had a brain tumour. He was operated on and recovered, and it was wonderful to see. He came back to see the nurses on the ward and he knew all of us from when we sat and talked to him when he couldn’t speak.’ One thing Ms Charalambous wishes she could change is society’s negative perceptions of older people, and older people’s care. ‘Negative media coverage means you can find yourself
at a disadvantage with families, who fear the worst,’ she says. ‘But once they see you are working hard to help their loved ones, they start to trust you and relationships can flourish. ‘Older people’s nursing is seen as an undesirable specialty by some nurses, but for me it is a real privilege. We need to start valuing older people more,’ she adds. Patience, kindness and fun Ms Charalambous says she works with an incredible nursing team, who go above and beyond the call of duty for their patients every day, led by an ‘inspirational’ ward sister from the front line. ‘My advice to any nurse wanting to work with older people is to find a team that will support you,’ she says. ‘Concentrate on developing your clinical and communication skills, and listen to your patients. You also need patience, kindness and a good sense of fun.’ As well as holding down her clinical role, Ms Charalambous is a published author. She has written extensively for the nursing press, including Nursing Older People’s sister title Nursing Standard, and has been published by the British Geriatrics Society. She is passionate about spreading best practice and innovation through writing, and recently set up an online publication group at her trust to inspire more nurses to disseminate their work. You can request to join the Facebook group at tinyurl.com/o6o8bxd Clare Lomas is a healthcare journalist April 2015 | Volume 27 | Number 3 41
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