Introduction:
1. What is your name?
Mphatshehla Keitumetse Constance
2. Which hospice do you work for?
Hearts of Compassion Hospice
3. What do you do there?
Professional nurse and nursing service manager
4. How long have you worked there?
Two years
In-depth:
1. Why did you decide to focus on palliative care?
I have a passion to embitter the lives of those facing life-limiting conditions.
2. What gives you the greatest fulfilment?
To see people relieved of pain and suffering.
3. What do you find the most challenging?
The large area that I am working in. The villages are based far apart from one another.
4. What do you think people find the most challenging about a life-threatening diagnosis?
Mostly, the uncertainty of when they will die and the question: “Why them in particular?”
5. What do you think that you personally bring to your job that reflects who you are as a person?
Seeing people’s lives change for the better.
6. How do you take care of your own health and balance?
By referring to the manual as well as getting feedback from other health professionals.
7. What is your advice to anyone else wishing to join your profession?
You need to have a love for humankind and see them as people and not statistics, even though they are patients.
8. What is your advice to anyone given a life-threatening diagnosis?
That there is always hope.
9. What is your advice to the loved ones of anyone who is given a life-threatening diagnosis?
Usually, I tell them that it is not a death sentence.
10. How do your loved ones feel about the work that you do?
They feel that it is a dangerous area to operate in, yet at the same time they are happy that I am able to make differences in the lives of patients and their families.
11. What do you like the most about the hospice that you work with?
Being able to do my job without any interference and the growth that I get from each and every patient that I encounter.
12. Do you have a “motto” that you tend to live by that you would like to share?
Live and let live.
