Meet our CNS Team - Gerri Allinson

Each of our teams hold a vital piece of the puzzle in making up Hospice Isle of Man.

It takes a wide range of people and roles to deliver excellent, compassionate palliative and end of life care to our community, and each of our teams step in when needed.

You may already know these wonderful people, but we wanted to focus on our amazing Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) Team over the next few weeks. We will introduce you to each of them and explain what they do here at Hospice.

Our CNS Team are a central part of our healthcare team. They are usually the first people you will come into contact with here at Hospice. They ensure that patients can access care in the place of their choice. They give advice on pain management, other symptoms and prescribe medication to help alleviate those symptoms. They also provide information, psychological support and education to patients, their families, carers and other professionals.

First up, let’s meet Gerri Allinson. Gerri is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and has been with us for over 12 years now.

What does a day look like in your role?
“We have a daily community meeting to discuss Hospice at Home patients, the need for beds, and allocation of this based on triage. I review patients at home or hospital visits, medications, reviews, liaise with GP’s, well-being teams, District Nurses, Acute Oncology and often consultants in the UK. Admin is involved too – triage of new referrals and arranging of appointments and follow up. I also teach courses twice a year so updating PowerPoints is important in my role.”

What’s your favourite thing about working at Hospice?
“Providing an excellent difficult emotional service.”

Share a highlight story or a favourite memory from your time at Hospice.
“Possibly my proudest memory is starting the shared hearts project with our previous volunteer co-ordinator Cathy during Covid, it has become so popular we have had letters of thanks from NZ and further afield. Volunteers still happy to knit and crochet for us and the families love the special memory.”