Oakhaven Hospice is launching an urgent recruitment campaign for more nurses to expand its service.
The priority is community nurses and night nurses but the Hospice, in Lower Pennington Lane, Lymington, is also looking for extra nurses who can help cover both day- and night-shifts as well as potentially work both within community and in-patient teams.
The campaign will include social media appeals and billboards in Hampshire and Dorset as well as traditional recruitment advertising.
Posters and messages used in the campaign are inspired by the experiences of current nurses at the Hospice and how they describe working there.
Lucy Smith, Director of Patient Services, said: “More people in our New Forest catchment area need our help and we are recruiting additional nursing staff to make sure we can be there for patients, their families and their carers when they need us most.
“We have now permanently increased our number of beds from eight to ten. This latest recruitment drive will enable us to offer up to four more beds as we did during lockdown to support the NHS, bringing the total to 14.”
Lucy added: “For the first time, we are also introducing the concept of ‘virtual beds’. This means that the extra capacity we are creating includes additional rooms within the Hospice, but it can also be care that we provide in people’s own homes or elsewhere.
“The over-riding aim is to provide the best quality of care for patients in the best place for them while also reducing pressure on hospital beds.”
Oakhaven Hospice, which serves most of the New Forest including Totton and the Waterside, employs over 20 nurses along with doctors and other specialist staff. The Hospice also supports patients and their families in their own homes and provides a range of wellbeing and complementary therapy support.
