The facility of placements
I’m a registered nurse working for specialist dementia care supplier, Vida Healthcare. I’d prefer to share my expertise of working in a specialist dementia care house and why extra nurses ought to contemplate gaining expertise inside care settings like these.
After gaining a stage two and three diploma in well being and social care and office expertise at Vida Healthcare, I knew inside a brief house of time dementia care was the place I needed my profession to progress.
I’d beforehand labored at Vida for a few years as a carer and group chief. In September 2022, I graduated from the College of Bradford as a registered nurse, earlier than returning to the care supplier.
Throughout my time at college, I undertook a spread of medical placements to realize a broad vary of expertise and to ensure dementia-specific care was proper for me. I loved my placements in acute care, surgical procedure and anaesthesia, however needed to offer all spherical holistic care on a extra everlasting foundation, quite than simply fixing issues and discharging sufferers.
Working at Vida has proven me how vital it’s for all nurses to have the chance to take a placement or work in a specialist dementia care setting and to work together with folks residing with dementia. The extra expertise you will have, the extra you perceive why folks residing with the illness act in sure methods. This provides you the information and confidence to offer acceptable care.
My days are at all times diversified. As a trainee, I used to be given many alternatives to shadow nurses throughout varied settings, together with residential, nursing and acute. I’m now concerned in remedy rounds, serving residents and offering totally different ranges of help relying on their wants.
In some settings, we might present varied actions to maintain residents occupied and mentally stimulated. This additionally provides us extra alternatives to spend time with them in constructive conditions.
Overcoming nervousness with empathy
Challenges might be offered if a resident turns into distressed, notably for these people who might discover it harder to speak successfully. At Vida, we obtain a major quantity of coaching on find out how to de-escalate conditions and assist residents to keep away from turning into distressed. Constructing a relationship with a resident additionally helps, because it lets you perceive and keep away from any triggers which could trigger them stress.
Our work is a lot greater than merely giving out remedy to folks. We construct relationships with our residents and take care of the entire individual – they’re not a statistic or somebody who’s unknown. We be taught their day by day routine, we all know their likes and dislikes, and we all know find out how to hold them joyful. It’s actually rewarding when now we have the chance to spend time with them. Even merely sitting down and having fun with a companionable cup of tea is usually a spotlight of our day.
