Wendy Lethem BSc, RN, Dip N, PGCert, (Independent Prescriber), MHM, Dip Advancing Practice.

Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care at Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice.

I have worked as a Specialist Nurse and Team Manager in hospice and palliative care teams for 34 years in hospice, hospital and community based teams. 

I have been Nurse Consultant at Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice since 2014, where I led the Community Palliative Care Service, and more recently the Hospital Palliative Care Team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. I now work part time at the Hospice as a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

I have learned and continue to learn the necessity of supportive leadership for staff who work in palliative and end of life care teams; the value of building the team and developing people so they can do their work well. I have also experienced the richness of working with families, carers and colleagues from other professions, to make the best possible care happen at the end of life.

By addressing a whole range of needs, from practical challenges and carer support, through to effective symptom management and advance care planning, we can change the experiences of people approaching the end of their lives and also those of their families and carers for the better.