Making a difference in Palliative Care

Carina Jacob lives her life a bit differently after caring for people who have died. As a registered nurse for six years, she spent the first four years of her career on the frontlines in Palliative Care at St. Joseph’s Health Care helping patients manage their symptoms due to a serious or life-limiting illness.

Her experience in palliative care gives her a profound and unique approach to life to ‘not sweat the small stuff’, but she admits palliative care takes an emotional toll on frontline staff.

“A lot of people have the perception that palliative care can be difficult and there are times when it is, but it is also incredibly rewarding. You are meeting people at their most vulnerable time, and you have the chance to make a difference.”

- Carina Jacob, nurse and Palliative Pain and Symptom Management consultant (PPSMC)

Making a difference aligns with this year’s National Nursing Week theme ‘Changing Lives, Shaping Tomorrow.’ Carina is now a Palliative Pain and Symptom Management Consultant (PPSMC) teaching and supporting frontline palliative care providers. She is part of a team of six PPSMCs based out of St. Joseph’s. She explains it is important for frontline staff in Palliative Care to take care of themselves as they are regularly exposed to a subject that is considered taboo in society, even in a health care system focused on recovery and healing. 

For Carina, nursing is not just a job, it is a calling and for a nurse in palliative care, it is about seeing the patient as a person. “At times, we are not able to take away all the suffering, but we journey alongside patients and help them when we can.”

Although palliative care is often seen as synonymous with death, Carina believes that is a huge misconception. She says palliative care is about living well. “It’s not something that needs to wait until the final moments of life and can be beneficial if introduced earlier in someone’s health care.”