As the 2016 awards season comes to a close, Barchester Healthcare reflects on the winners of the recently held Barchester Care Awards, which recognises the achievements of individuals and teams from our homes and hospitals across the UK.
Our Care Awards are the pinnacle of the Barchester calendar and a fantastic opportunity for our teams across England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales to come together and celebrate the hard work and dedication they show throughout the year.
The Awards demonstrate that it takes a whole team to support our residents, patients and their families, so categories at the event included Nurse, General Manager, Apprentice and Chef of the Year.
Jane Priddey Thomas, Clinical Development Nurse in the Care Quality Team was proud to be nominated as a finalist for the Nurse of the Year award. “I was surprised and thrilled to be nominated. I love my job and feel it is an honour to be a nurse, caring for and supporting our residents. The competition was tough and there were so many deserving nominees. I didn’t take the first prize this year, but that didn’t matter. Being recognised for my work made me feel like a winner!”
As a Clinical Development Nurse (CDN) Jane explains that even if your role isn’t hands-on, Barchester residents are always the primary concern. “During my 24 years as a nurse I have covered many different aspects of healthcare including oncology, being a discharge nurse and school nurse. However, working with older people has always felt like the right fit for me. I started working as a Peripatetic Nurse with Barchester two and a half years ago and progressed to a Clinical Development Nurse role in early 2016.”
“My role is to work with our General and Deputy Managers in care homes across South Wales and the M4 corridor. I offer additional support from a clinical perspective and work as part of the team to ensure our homes are compliant with the CQC and CSSIW.”
Jane goes on to explain that you don’t have to be hands-on to make a difference. “You just need the passion and desire to offer people the best quality of care. I use my nursing and management skills to ensure a consistent quality of care across our care homes. For example, I help make sure our new nurses feel confident in their role by offering any additional training they require.”
“Our residents are at the heart of everything we do. We have amazing person- centred care plans to ensure each resident is living their life to the full. We work hard to understand our residents’ likes and dislikes and offer a broad range of services to support them; so we have to be ready to provide that support, to a very high standard.”
“Working closely with the teams in each care home I make sure systems are in place to help identify any potential issues and trends which could affect our residents, such as trends in pressure sores or falls. I also review all the equipment used in our care homes to ensure it is of the best quality to enable our nurses to perform their roles.”
“If changes need to be made I make the changes happen quickly; whether new equipment is required, additional training is needed or more efficient processes need to be implemented I can help. It is also my role to ensure our nurses have the right framework to work in, so they feel empowered to make the decisions they need to for our residents. A confident team always provides the best care.”
Jane explains how she feels she has developed since joining Barchester. “I love having a regional role. My skills in areas such as operational processes and crisis management have really developed since I joined the Care Quality Team. As I cover a number of homes I always have to think on my feet, but that is exactly how I like to work. If I am being effective and making changes for the good then I am happy.”
“If I was living in a care home I would want the people looking after me to be compassionate, caring, and passionate about what they do. I see it as my role to ensure this is what the dedicated teams in our care homes are providing. Being a finalist at this year’s Barchester Care Awards has made me really proud to realise that I am well on way to achieving this.”
