Brogan is part of our fantastic team on St Mary’s In-Patient Unit. Brogan, 26, recently graduated from University after completing her FdSc Nursing Associate Degree, having started at St Mary’s as a health care assistant.
She said: “It was really hard work, but I’m proud of myself. I wouldn’t have got through it without the support of my colleagues at St Mary’s — especially Kim Everett, who completed the course and graduated with me.”
“I come from a long line of NHS workers so my career choice became obvious from an early age, because I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my family. I did two years at Furness Collage before getting my first job in healthcare at 17.
“Working at the hospice is more than just a job, it is a vocation and I feel it is a privilege to be able to provide person centred care to our service users and their families. Sometimes people come to us at what can be a really difficult time, and we can make it much better for them. I think everyone deserves a good death — whoever they are and from whatever background — and there are things we can do so that people get to make their own choices and feel as comfortable and dignified as possible.”
Brogan was the face of a social marketing campaign earlier in the year to attract new staff, needed because St Mary’s was introducing a Fast Track service, which is offered to people who are assessed to be within 12 weeks of death. Its function is to support people at home to die where that is their choice, and it provides support for washing, eating, dressing etc up to four times a day depending on assessed need. This service started to take patients in late May 2022 and delivers care to up to five people at a time.
The #BeMoreBrogan campaign was successful in attracting a raft of applicants looking to get into healthcare, but also had another unintended positive — some amazing feedback from families of patients Brogan had cared for.
“It was lovely — people commented on the posts saying they could remember me taking care of their relatives, and not just medically but the little things we do, brushing someone’s hair or doing their nails, and that their relatives had really appreciated me. To receive that kind of feedback means the world to me.”