"End of life care for my grandfather"

My grandfather was an inpatient at Kalamunda hospital on the palliative care ward. I’m very happy to say that majority of the nursing staff and the doctors were kind and caring. However, on Wednesday night we were contacted urgently by the nurse caring for him that afternoon. She advised that it did not seem like my grandfather had long left and suggested that we return to the hospital to be with him. He was moved to a larger room on the ward to accommodate this. In total, eight people showed up. The afternoon nurse was very good to us.

It was the night duty nurse that made us feel uncomfortable and unwanted. I believe they were unhappy with the number of visitors with my grandfather. We assured the nurse that we would remain quiet so not to disturb any other patients. We were not being noisey to begin with anyway. It was unfortunate that during this time when we needed to be together we felt on edge and uncomfortable. This nurse also did not change my grandfathers continence pad once during the shift, something we did not think about ourselves until the morning but we believe now in hindsight that this contributed to some discomfort he seemed to experience over night. 

I hope by sharing this feedback it’s a reminder of how it feels to be on the families side of the palliative care experience. I understand that having more people in a hospital room could make the nursing job harder but ultimately, this is our loved one dying and we only get one opportunity to support them and each other. In my opinion, this is more important..