Jakki Whitehead, an experienced care professional, is training to become one of dementia care’s ‘beacons of excellence’ – an Admiral Nurse. This blog follows her journey from day one.

November 2016 

Since I last wrote back in August a lot has happened on the Admiral Nurse front.

In September, I went to the annual Admiral Nurse Forum where all Admiral Nurses and Dementia UK staff get together to look at best practice.

This year it was about the place of art in dementia care for people with dementia and their carers, paid or otherwise. We looked at the use of singing, music, dance, physical activity, poetry, cinema and theatre. All of these are recognised in reducing anxiety and stimulating memory and cognition.
We also discussed the importance of the carer role and looking after the carer

A very moving speaker was Tommy Whitelaw from Dementia Carers’ Voices, who looked after his mum. See Tommy share his experiences on YouTube. He spoke of how he assisted his mum through her journey with dementia and the pain he experienced whilst being with her due to the ignorance around dementia.

Tommy said “When people make decisions about you rather than with you then you are on your own.”

This enabled me to realise how important it is for me to continue to raise the recognition of paid carers for our residents as people with life stories, loves and relationships and using this awareness to honour the individual and their families and both of their emotions and experiences.

To this end I have been discussing developing the dementia champion role within Riversway to help carers to understand this and to help limit this lack of sensitivity through awareness of some of the issues experienced by relatives.

Another message was that singing is a very powerful way of connecting with people with dementia and benefits people physically - heart, lungs, brain, posture, breathing and speech; mentally - new skills, achievements, confidence and improvement in mood; and socially - meeting new people. Anyone can sing even if the tune may be a little unconventional and it does mean that everyone’s voice is heard.

I know from experience that singing can really help benefit residents’ wellbeing. At a recent resident and relative group my manager Jan said “Does anyone have anything else to add?” A resident who had sat quietly throughout said “Well do you know we haven’t done any singing yet!” and launched into Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.

Maybe we should end all of our meetings with a song!

Click HERE to read my 1st blog (May 2016) - My Journey to become an Admiral Nurse

Click HERE to read my 2nd blog (June 2016)- My Admiral Nursing Journey

Click HERE to read my 3rd blog (July 2016) - My Admiral Nursing Journey

Click HERE to read my 4th blog (August 2016) - My Admiral Nursing Journey

Riversway Nursing Home is celebrating after a major award ceremony saw staff member Trudy Palmer, win a top prize.

Trudy, team leader at Riversway, was named the winner of the Great British Care Awards’ Frontline Leader award in its South West heats.

Meanwhile, two of her colleagues were shortlisted for awards: Julie Fowler for the Dignity Care award and Sabrina Prewett for the Care Newcomer award.

The awards feature a series of regional events throughout England, designed to celebrate excellence across the care sector.

They feature 21 categories, and include all areas of the sector such as older people, specialist services or residential and home care.

Winners of the regional titles go on to take part in a national competition.

In the end, Julie and Sabrina weren’t successful, but colleagues from across the group are very proud of them for making it to the finals.

At the previous evenings North West regional awards in Manchester, Springhill group chairman Ken Nolan was crowned the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Social Care award, and Virginia Perkins, head of human resources, won the Care Newcomer award.

Judges praised Ken and the Springhill Care Group, saying: Ken Nolan has worked tirelessly for over 32 years to deliver the highest quality care. Ken is driven by the values of social care, and the services which Ken leads are beacons of quality and innovation and are always connected to the local community.

“Ken Nolan's contribution to the care sector goes far beyond the services that he leads and delivers, he is a true sector champion and a great ambassador for the entire sector.”

Other shortlisted staff were:

• Springhill Care Home’s Donna Walmsley for the Dementia Carer award.
• The team at Affinity Supporting people were shortlisted in the Care Employer award and Care Team award categories.
• Birch Green: Angela Hart was shortlisted for the Good Nurse award category, Alison Peate for the Ancillary Worker, Emma Ashworth for the Care Home Worker, and Gill Seddon for the Activities Coordinator.

Ken Nolan added: “As we know, good care requires a great team effort; this is only achieved thanks to the dedication and commitment of all the outstanding people I am privileged to call colleagues and friends.

“Springhill Care Group has always worked hard to support its staff and to help their development, and I’m delighted for all our staff who were shortlisted or left with an award.”

One of Riversway Nursing Home’s longest serving staff members has said an emotional goodbye to her friends and colleagues as she retires.

Georgina Harriman, Riversway’s Quality & Performance and Training Manager, bowed out after a 19-year career with the home.

One of the first staff members to join Riversway when it first opened, Georgina, of Hanham in Bristol, helped to establish the home and its reputation for high quality care in her role as a care assistant.

Working her way up to senior carer, Georgina then joined Riversway’s management team. During her career she made many friends and was a highly respected member of staff.

Riversway General Manager Jan Wilkins said: “Everyone who met her loved her. There were plenty of tears at her leaving do, and so many gifts and cards.

“Georgina really was overwhelmed with the attention and even though we’re all sorry to see her go we wish her all the best for her retirement!”

To view all the wonderful photographs on our Facebook page, please click HERE

Riversway Nursing Home and Birch Green Care Home have both implemented an innovative new digital system to manage resident medication administration practices.

Riversway has revolutionised its medication management procedures, moving away from dated paper based systems, and offering a medicine management system with significant benefits, including increased efficiency and a reduced risk of administrative errors.

The system called Well Careplus was launched by Well Pharmacy last year to digitally disrupt traditional paper based practises. Well Careplus aims to future-proof care homes by giving pharmacists complete access to the medicine records of residents.

Enabled by specially designed tablet technology, called the Well Pad, Well Pharmacists are able to proactively advise care homes, ensuring prescribed drug therapies are safe and effective for residents, and that administration records are correct.

Drug administration errors are often a key element of concern by the Care Quality Commission when they inspect care homes, and managing the ordering and administration of medicines to residents is a complex and time consuming process. Typically, in a 67 bed care home some 4000-plus individual medicines are delivered to residents each week.

Jan Wilkins, General Manager at Riversway, said: “Medication plays such an important role in the day-to-day life of the residents we care for. We are always keen to move with the times and make systems more efficient. The Well Careplus system is reducing errors and is hence much safer than paper systems. It’s already saving us time, and reducing waste.”

Specialist health technology development firm, Invatech Health, which designed the Well Pad, recently commissioned a study, by the School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University, to evaluate the tablet’s reliability and key benefits. Across the care homes in the study, overstocking of medicine was reduced by 22 per cent, returned medicine wastage was reduced by 55 per cent, missing medication administration entries on the residents’ records dropped by 80 per cent, and over 92 per cent of participating care homes said they would not wish to return to paper based systems.

The Well Pad is fitted with a scanner to tell staff in the home what each resident has been prescribed by their GP. It has fail-safe systems in place to prevent medicines being administered incorrectly, ensuring the right person gets the right medication, at the right time.

Steve Newton, Director of Quality & Compliance at Springhill Care Group, said: “The care home sector has been slow to embrace the benefits of new technology, and this technology will revolutionise how this complex and critical aspect of care is managed.”

View the Well Careplus - ITN produced video featuring Steve Newton, Jan Wilkins and the team and residents at Riversway Nursing Home below