Placement opportunities

We can't provide all the palliative care in the area ourselves; training allows us to build up palliative care skills in other professionals and in other areas

Since 2001 we have given a training placement to one Specialist Registrar each year. These are experienced doctors who have chosen a career in palliative care and are undertaking four years training to become a consultant; usually the Hospice placement is their first year of training. As well as this, we give a placement to 3 SHO's (Senior House Officers) per year, each for four months. SHO's are junior doctors with one year's experience who follow a rotation of placements for two years after their House Officer year. There are usually 6 placements during this period, and for those who elect to do palliative care SMH will be one of the placements in the first year. It is a chance for these newly qualified doctors, who have not yet specialised, to gain palliative care experience, improve their skills in the practice and gain an understanding of how the Hospice operates.

Doctors and district nurses can also take part in adhoc sessions at the Hospice, where they sit in on outpatient clinics or attend ward rounds to get a greater understanding of palliative care.

Most Herefordshire student nurses will receive at least one-day of experience at St Michael's, to give them a general overview of what services we offer and how we operate. A further 15 - 20 ‘post qualified' nurses per year who are undertaking education courses in palliative care are given training on site of between 1 day and a week each. Furthermore for the past four years around 2 - 3 student nurses per year are offered longer ‘elective' placements of between 6 and 8 weeks at the end of their third year degree course. Placements of other professional staff - Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Ordinands etc can also be arranged.

Attaining a placement

Placements are limited at St Michaels' Hospice in order to protect patients and families from constant changes in staff. We do however take placements in every department of the Hospice, and for further information or to apply please contact Danielle Meadows, the secretary to the Education Department on 01431 851000 who will be happy to help you.