This is the week that Ontario celebrates PSWs! Anyone who knows me knows that I value, respect, and stand in awe of Personal Support Workers and their role as essential members of the health care team. There is no where that this is more obvious than in hospice and palliative care! I love the stories that PSWs have shared with me over the years, their examples of caregiving, and the stories shared about them by families who have been fortunate to see their loved ones cared for by exceptional PSWs.
Each year we offer the Life and Death Matters – Frances Montgomery – Hospice Palliative Care PSW award through Hospice Palliative Care Ontario (HPCO). This year we are very excited to present the award to Michelle McInnes from Margaret’s Place Hospice. Michelle worked for years in long term care and then caring for people with disabilities. She is currently a caregiver in her personal life. Michelle started with Margaret’s Hospice a few years ago.
Some of the words that describe her include: compassionate, patient, consistent, and collaborative. She is skilled at boundary setting, self-reflection, communication, identification of common symptoms, providing skin care, implementation of comfort measures, providing person- and family-centred care, noticing the small things, encouraging or creating meaningful experiences, and on the list goes.
As a mentor she orientates new staff. One nurse who came to the hospice after decades of working in pediatric care wrote, “She trained me in the care of adults and geriatric residents. She taught me how to provide and assist with ADLs, repositioning and safe transferring, how to use lifts, and how to assist with feeding. She was patient yet thorough, always providing rationale for the care provided. She modelled how to provide exemplary care, and the positive response from patients and family had a lasting effect on me. .. She is continuously advocating for high quality care for residents and their families. She teaches me daily about the giving of self for the greater good”.
We are so excited to meet Michelle in person at the HPCO Conference, June 9-11, 2024!
