Introduction:

1. What is your name?
Lindeni Sibisi

2. Which hospice do you work for?
Highway Hospice

3. What do you do there?
Community Nursing Care (Professional Nurse)

4. How long have you been there?
10 years

In-depth:

5. Why did you decide to focus on palliative care?
To improve the quality of life for people with life-threatening illness and their family members.

6. What gives you the greatest fulfilment?
Providing effective treatment by empowering patients and their families with knowledge of the sickness and control of the disease.

7. What do you find the most challenging?
• Poverty, unemployed and squatter camps.
• Fear of infection, especially at this time of Covid-19.
• Minimising the risk of complicated grief when there is a forced (expulsion?) of families because of fear of contracting the disease.

8. What do you think people find the most challenging about a life-threatening diagnosis?
Difficulty to accept and fear about caring for the loved one.

9. What do you think that you personally bring to your job that reflects who you are as a person?
Love and care.

10. How do you take care of your own health and balance?
• To understand the principles of infection control and from being directly involved with patients.
• Wearing protective clothing, washing hands with sanitiser and wearing of masks.

11. What is your advice to anyone else wishing to join your profession?
To be empathetic, give love and support to people with threatening diseases as well as family for support.

12. What is your advice to anyone given a life-threatening diagnosis?
Educating patients, families and communities should understand how to protect themselves by simple hygiene measures. Seek health care and further investigation, refer to proper centre.

13. What is your advice to the loved ones of anyone who is given a life-threatening diagnosis?
To have a meeting with the family gives them opportunity to help everyone to understand the situation. To focus on comfort as the main goal of care by showing sensitivity and the decision must be based on the dying person’s wish if possible.

14. How do your loved ones feel about the work that you do?
They appreciate the work that I am doing, eg caring for and loving my patients.

15. What do you like the most about the hospice that you work with?
Good team work, spirit from doctors, nurses and social worker during IDT meeting and supporting each other.

16. Do you have a “motto” that you tend to live by that you would like to share?
Be a good listener, treat patients as individuals.