It was here that I first saw nurses working in a completely different environment to any I’d seen them in before; I was 17 and I didn’t know nurses worked outside of hospitals.
Learning from nurses working in a non-hospital setting was invaluable, seeing them deliver person-centred care for residents and build relationships with their relatives and friends was incredibly inspiring. All of this while maintaining an environment which was ‘home’ for the residents highlighted to me the diverse skills these nurses had. I felt that it was possible to build up a closer connection with care home residents than with shorter-stay patients in a hospital setting because of the time you have with them.
After the YTS scheme finished I stayed on in the home as a nurse auxiliary. I loved my job and being part of the team at the home and was keen to learn as much as I could about caring for people. I remember going on to do a ‘practical caring skills’ course and was taught how to take temperatures and pulses, from then on, I longed to be a nurse. The nurses at the home were really supportive of me and encouraged me to do my nurse training, I still have a letter written by the Nursing Director of the home who said ‘Sarah is a quiet person who appears to care very much for the residents here, we all feel sure she will make an excellent nurse’. With their support I found myself catapulted off to do my nurse training in 1989. I could not be more thankful for the experience and support I had working in the care home as I couldn’t imagine being anything other than a nurse.
Over the years as a qualified nurse I have many roles in the NHS, all of which I am proud to say have been in the community setting and have allowed me to work in collaboration with nursing colleagues working in social care. All of these roles have highlighted to me the importance and significant benefits of establishing strong and meaningful working relationships between all organisations and services who provide health and social care.
Read more: Nursing across independent health and social care services.
Now, as independent health and social care sector lead for the RCN's South West region, I’m able to bring members together from across the sector. Imagine your collective power as a sector if you put your mind to something and use the RCN to achieve it. As a first step, please join the RCN South West Independent Health and Social Care Facebook group, tell me who you are and where you work, and I will do my best for you.
Join the RCN South West Independent Health and Social Care Sector Facebook group.
If you’re not a Facebook person, that’s alright, not everyone is – my email is Sarah.Winfield-Davies@rcn.org.uk – please do get in touch with me if you have any issues or ideas for projects to bring about improvements you’d like to see in your sector. I am also keen to hear from you if you are happy to write a short blog about your role and share some of the inspiring work you do.
Look out for my next blog where I will share how being curious about my RCN membership supported my development and passion to work in collaboration with and raise the profile of nursing colleagues working across the independent health and social care landscape.
Learning from nurses working in a non-hospital setting was invaluable, seeing them deliver person-centred care for residents and build relationships with their relatives and friends was incredibly inspiring. All of this while maintaining an environment which was ‘home’ for the residents highlighted to me the diverse skills these nurses had. I felt that it was possible to build up a closer connection with care home residents than with shorter-stay patients in a hospital setting because of the time you have with them.
After the YTS scheme finished I stayed on in the home as a nurse auxiliary. I loved my job and being part of the team at the home and was keen to learn as much as I could about caring for people. I remember going on to do a ‘practical caring skills’ course and was taught how to take temperatures and pulses, from then on, I longed to be a nurse. The nurses at the home were really supportive of me and encouraged me to do my nurse training, I still have a letter written by the Nursing Director of the home who said ‘Sarah is a quiet person who appears to care very much for the residents here, we all feel sure she will make an excellent nurse’. With their support I found myself catapulted off to do my nurse training in 1989. I could not be more thankful for the experience and support I had working in the care home as I couldn’t imagine being anything other than a nurse.
Over the years as a qualified nurse I have many roles in the NHS, all of which I am proud to say have been in the community setting and have allowed me to work in collaboration with nursing colleagues working in social care. All of these roles have highlighted to me the importance and significant benefits of establishing strong and meaningful working relationships between all organisations and services who provide health and social care.
Read more: Nursing across independent health and social care services.
Now, as independent health and social care sector lead for the RCN's South West region, I’m able to bring members together from across the sector. Imagine your collective power as a sector if you put your mind to something and use the RCN to achieve it. As a first step, please join the RCN South West Independent Health and Social Care Facebook group, tell me who you are and where you work, and I will do my best for you.
Join the RCN South West Independent Health and Social Care Sector Facebook group.
If you’re not a Facebook person, that’s alright, not everyone is – my email is Sarah.Winfield-Davies@rcn.org.uk – please do get in touch with me if you have any issues or ideas for projects to bring about improvements you’d like to see in your sector. I am also keen to hear from you if you are happy to write a short blog about your role and share some of the inspiring work you do.
Look out for my next blog where I will share how being curious about my RCN membership supported my development and passion to work in collaboration with and raise the profile of nursing colleagues working across the independent health and social care landscape.
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