Meet Ires – the hospice nurse caring through the night at St Oswald’s Hospice

Ires gently giggles at the suggestion that she is an “angel”:

“I don’t really see it in myself to be honest. I’ve just got that passion for my nursing.”

Originally trained in general nursing and midwifery back home in Zambia, Ires later came to the UK and went to university to “upgrade” her nursing skills and found her way into palliative care.

But nursing has never been just a job.

“I think nursing is a calling,” she says. “For you to do it, it has to be a calling.”

Ward Sister, Lauren, agrees:

“This is where Ires is meant to be. She’s very dedicated to the patients – she has them at the forefront of her mind all the time. She knows her job inside out. If I’m busy, I just know that it’s alright because she’s on the ward.”

With 40 years of nursing experience, Ires brings a reassuring calm to the night shift. She echoes the quiet of the night as she goes about her work. Her caring smile and friendly tone bring instant warmth as she settles patients in.

She explains: “Most of the time when I look at a patient, I always feel like I’m treating my own family.”

During her time at the hospice, Ires has helped support countless patients and families through some of the most difficult moments. For Ires, one of the most important parts of hospice nursing is taking time to listen.

“I’m quite a deep thinker,” Ires says. “When patients are talking to you, you listen, and do not jump into conclusions. When you listen, you reflect on what they’re telling you and then see how best you can achieve it, working together with the patient.” 

That approach shapes everything she does. 

Every patient is asked when they arrive, ‘What matters to you?’ – and for everyone involved in their care, that becomes the most important thing to know.

Whether it’s a wish to go home to die, or to make it to a special occasion, or even have the dog visit daily – the team do everything they can to support patients’ wishes.  

Above all, Ires explains, “comfort is the priority for everyone.” 

That can mean managing symptoms, helping patients settle, supporting families through difficult decisions, or respecting someone’s faith, culture and wishes at the end of life. It can also mean helping people make the most of the time they have. 

“I think with palliative care, people think we just do death and dying, but it’s the concept that people miss,” she says. “We don’t just look after the patient. We walk with them on their journey. Once they get referred to us, we get to know them, we get to know their families, we get to know their needs.” 

For Ires, that is what makes hospice care so meaningful. It is not only about end of life, but about helping people live as comfortably and fully as possible, with the right support around them. 

She recalls one moment that has stayed with her when she supported a mother to write an 18th birthday card for her child, who was still only eight years old at the time. Later that night, the mother died. 

“That day, I really felt I had done something good,” she says. 

But Ires knows that in the stillness of the night, comfort is sometimes about “just being there” for a patient or their loved ones. 

“Your presence means a lot to them,” says Ires, “you haven’t done anything, you haven’t said anything, but just being there, they feel supported.” 

It’s a simple thought, but one that says so much about hospice nursing – being calm, present and helping people feel less alone. 

As a Catholic, Ires understands the comfort that faith can bring – it helps her process her hospice nursing experiences. It also helps her to be more understanding of other faiths and cultures too.  

At the hospice patients have the freedom to practice any faith. Ires talks about how she supported a Muslim family recently, ensuring that their wishes were respected, whilst also talking to and reassuring them about the after-death care she could give their mum. They trusted Ires who was then able to prepare their mum to go to the mosque. Ires remembers their reaction when they came back:  

“They were smiling because they found her comfortable, she looked really peaceful.”  

Supporting people who are dying, and the families around them, can be incredibly hard and Ires is honest about the personal impact it can have.  

On the night we spoke, a family gathered in the Family Room – eating, talking, supporting each other. Ires was taking care of their loved one – a woman the same age as her own daughter – which she found “heartbreaking”. 

Ires continues: 

“You achieve a lot of things. You learn a lot. When I came here, I had the knowledge of the theory part. But I didn’t know how to deliver it. Working with people like Lauren and Dr Andrew Hughes, you learn how to communicate.  You see how the patient really feels totally holistically looked at.”  

Her work has also changed the way she sees life. 

“It has rearranged my priorities,” she says. “What I value most and what I don’t value. All I want is somebody to be as comfortable as anything, and to have their needs met.” 

For Ires, nursing is a calling, but it is also something simpler than that. It is listening, noticing what matters, and supporting people when they need it most. 

This International Nurses Day, we are proud to celebrate Ires and all our hospice nurses. Their care reminds us that sometimes, the most important thing of all is simply “being there”. 

At night, when everything else has gone quiet, that can make all the difference. 

Find out more about our Adult Inpatient Service here.