I recently commissioned a series of videos showcasing the ethos and daily life at our Worcester care home. This blog is a transcript from one of those videos. I hope it helps you learn more about our care home staff and the working environment here at our care home Worcester.
There are various elements in this residential care home which are totally independent.
If you look as you go around the home, you will see a variety of ages among the staff and a wide variety of nationalities.
But, one thing I hope you’ll see all the time, and indeed hear, is smiling faces and a happy laughter.
Caring for people is an amazing privilege.
Often people aspire to be in the care profession but the reality of what is required of them is very challenging.
You need resilience to come into this building every single day and be bright and cheerful.
You need resilience to face the vicissitudes of the day, when people with complex care needs can challenge us as individuals.
And, what I’m looking for when I’m recruiting our Worcester care home staff are two things: I’m looking for an ability to learn, because we’re going to teach them a hell of a lot about the theory supporting the care that we provide here, and about how to practically deliver it.
The care home staff are critical to the care that we deliver
The residential care goes on 24 hours a day seven days a week.
The whole care team – and they all have various areas of speciality – so for example if we take our housekeeping team, they’re looking after the environment.
Their particular responsibility is around infection control throughout the environment, but they’re also trained about our residents.
So they know how to interact with our residents. They know what to do in certain situations.
And, I have made sure I built-in sufficient time for them to be able to have a social relationship with our residents.
The same with the food and beverage care home staff, who are supporting our residents with their nutrition and hydration.
They’re not just there to put a meal in front of somebody, they’re there for the social occasion as well.
The nursing assistants who are working right across all these areas do have a very very busy time.
People in a nursing home or care home, whatever you want to call it, are there because they need support, and they often need it in a moment.
So, you have to build in sufficient staff and sufficient hours within the whole day for our care home team, so that they can meet those needs quite comfortably and not be stressed themselves.
You might also like to watch our previous video and read the accompanying blog about the flow of daily life at our care home near Worcester.
You can view this and all of the videos in this series on our YouTube Channel.