Elisa Monk, Rainbows Clinical Nurse Specialist in Children’s Palliative Care

During secondary school, I thought I was going to be a teacher as I wanted to work with children and I had a fond interest in biology – particularly the human body. I did a lot of volunteering with both baby and children’s services so wanted to do something that combined the two together and was excited to decide that nursing was the way forward.

Originally I applied for midwifery, but I realised I was more interested in caring for the babies, so felt children’s nursing would be more suited to me. In September 2018, I graduated from the University of Salford with my Children and Young People’s nursing degree. I began my newly qualified nurse training on the children’s oncology ward in Manchester Children’s hospital, and it was amazing.

Seven years later, I have enjoyed fulfilling roles in oncology, bereavement and palliative care and have been at Rainbows for 15 months working across Nottinghamshire.

My favourite part of my job is being able to give families my time, and supporting them with many different aspects of care. There is no day that is the same, and what a family needs can vary from providing memory making, to helping with symptom management, or parents just wanting to talk about their child and their family life.

Sadly, for most of the families we care for, the outcome is the same but being able to support as little or as much as they need and make this journey ‘easier’ for them makes me proud to do the role I do. I know I can make a difference to families lives, which are full of so many challenges. To have a positive impact along this journey is incredibly rewarding.

I had always found caring for patients towards the end of life very rewarding and the Rainbows role felt like the best career move for me. I love it. I love supporting patients and families in hospital and seeing how much rainbows can help them. Rainbows has many services to increase the quality of life for a baby, child or young person.

To anyone thinking of becoming a nurse, I would say follow your gut with what you’re passionate about. There’s no set path for you as a nurse. When I came into nursing, I didn’t consider bereavement and palliative care as nursing because I wouldn’t be clinically working on the ward. However, nursing comes in all different shapes and sizes!