Care Home Nursing Award

As the complexity of residents’ clinical need increases, the skills, competencies and availability of nursing staff in care homes is increasingly important. They play a fundamental role in ensuring residents receive high quality, safe care and are treated with dignity and respect.

Open to registered nurses and nursing support workers working in Scotland’s care homes. This award aims to recognise the impact and importance of nursing in social care and those who have made an outstanding contribution to care and quality of life for residents in a care home. 

A registered nurse or nursing support worker who is delegated work by a registered nurse and is working in a clinical role in a care home setting in Scotland. This could be in a local authority, or the independent or third sector.

Interim Care Home Manager, Nightingale Care Home, Sterling Care Homes Ltd

Described by her colleagues as a care home manager with a passion for improving the care and services offered to the residents of the Nightingale Care Home. These improvements are clearly evidenced in her nominations for her work on food, fluid and nutrition (FFN). Working with NHS dieticians and being open to learning from nutritional audits, Arlene has completely overhauled food provision, developing the whole team to be upskilled in FFN. Her holistic approach has also seen her develop the environments where food is served, creating innovative calming spaces for residents. Arlene also encourages resident to be part of decisions about menus, encouraging resident to join staff on trips to the shops to buy the food that will be served. Other initiatives introduced by Arlene support physical fitness with adapted spin classes, yoga, and themed activities for events such as Wimbledon. Her nominators note that Arlene has turned this care home around despite the challenges of the pandemic and the wider challenges of recruitment and retention of staff. Arlene is keen to note that her staff work with her and not for her, she is always seen in the same uniform as her team and often assists care. Her staff are supported to contribute to the ongoing improvements within the home. Arlene is keen to raise the profile of holistic care home nursing and the positive outcomes it can achieve.

Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Erskine

Directly employed by their care home provider, Laura and Kim provide a ‘first of its kind’ dedicated advanced nursing practice service. The team strive to introduce early interventions, prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and reduce the need for GP input. Developing a reactive, responsive service, they introduced a digital referral system which allows them to screen GP referrals. Laura and Kim also introduced a proactive system of reviewing all 10 houses within the two homes twice a day to in identify deteriorating residents and intervene at the earliest possible point. Other innovations include work to reduce infections and introduce more targeted use of antibiotics, bladder scanning for continence care, ECG monitoring for residents commencing psychotropic medicine, all designed to ensure quicker assessment, treatment and improved outcomes. Laura and Kim are keen to promote their model of nursing care, encourage student placements within care homes, share case studies and generally promote the benefits of advanced nursing practice within care home settings.

Staff Nurse, Culduthel Care Home, Meallmore Ltd

Described by her colleagues as a dedicated and compassionate care home nurse, Kamlia always strives to ensure the best outcomes for her patients. Her passion for providing long term care for residents at the Culduthel Care Home, has allowed he to not only know the all the care history and current needs of residents, but has allowed her to develop meaning working relationships with local GP services. Kamila’s holistic approach to nursing means that she has managed to improve the health outcomes by putting her heart and soul into the care she provides. She has also led the way in supporting and training colleagues in the home to improve health and care delivery, with colleagues noting how much improved their confidence is with her support – encouraging some to progress into a nursing career themselves. With the crisis in staff recruitment, Kamila introduced an information sheet designed for agency workers coming into the home which bullet points resident needs and helps to establish continuity of care. Kamila’s passion for raising the profile of care home nursing is evidenced in her establishments of open days, social media events and the creation of videos to inspire others into a career and area of nursing she is extremely passionate about.

If you have any questions or queries regarding the awards, please get in touch by emailing scotlandnurseawards@rcn.org.uk

Return to the homepage