Weavers House Staff Nursing Care Awards 2017

I am the manager of Weavers House since August 2014. When I became the manager in Weavers the occupancy was 35 and the attendance was really high and staff turnover was extremely high.

I began at the very start and addressed the attendance issues, staff competency, staff morale. I met with all the relatives in a group and individually to identify any issues they had. I had meetings with all the local MDT’s to identify their needs and receive feedback about the service to date. With a lot of hard work and dedication the reputation of the home began to improve. The atmosphere in the home improved and we began to attract a very high standard of applicants for vacancies. We developed a team.

I am a member of the RCN Independent Home Managers Forum and my employer nominated Weavers for the RCN SPACE project and Weavers was the only home in Northern Ireland to be selected in the intense interview process. We choose pain management and distressed reactions. We had a 1-year project and we had to go to London 3 times in 2016 with a final presentation in RCN headquarters in London. I was also published in the RCN journal for Older People about the SPACE project and also for been the runner up in Team Manager of the year for RCN in 2016.

I was runner up in the RCN awards for Team Manager of the Year and we went to Hillsborough Castle for the awards ceremony. This was also an amazing honour.

In 2017 I won Home Manager of the year at the Staff Nursing awards this was held in Stormont Hotel in June 2017 and I was deeply honoured by this award.

Weavers House has won the best kept awards for the best kept facility in the Northern Trust for 2016 and again in 2017. We have 5 chickens in the garden and also a green house which the residents grow their own vegetables and then they cook them afterwards. The residents spend most of their time in the garden as soon as the weather improves so this is so important for their wellbeing and quality of life.

In November 2017 I had the great honour of been interviewed by Dawn Garett Specialist Nurse Practitioner for older people for RCN. This interview goes live on the RCN website in March to encourage staff to work in the independent sector and also to advocate the role of home manager. I really enjoyed doing this as it helped me reflect on how much I really enjoy been a home manager and also how much joy the role gives me, enabling me to make positive change for my resident’s lives.