SNAPOLOGUE

This week I've been in a nursing home. Oh the joy.

Actually, it's not been as bad as I thought it would be. The home I've been working in has 28 residents, both residential and nursing. The only difference being that the nursing residents require some sort of qualified nurse input, be it dressings or behavioural management. There is also a £100 difference per week. Residential residents pay around £350 per week, and nursing residents pay around £450. That's not exactly cheap - and what makes it worse is that many of their methods and much of the equipment is out-dated and obselete.

There's only one qualified member of staff on a shift, supported by three carers that do most of the daily care that is needed like getting people up, taking them to the toilet etc. They also have two apprentices that earn £30 per week and attend college one day a week. The carers are on minimum wage, with senior carers earning just 10p more per hour.

The staff are fantastic, however slightly lacking in experience, qualifications and up-to-date training. A central few of the carers have worked at the home since it opened, fifteen years ago, and some of the residents have lived there for that duration. The Sister leading the shifts this week was from South Africa, and had been over here for three years earning some money to pay for some print machines that she and her husband wanted to purchase. She was very experienced, and was effective at managing the shift.

I've had the opportunity to teach some of the carers some useful techniques, such as how to effectively use a slide sheet, maintaining pressure care and a bit on Parkinson's. Pressure care isn't something they do well - the owner won't pay the money to hire or buy a proper bi-wave (also known as airwave) mattress that ripples along maintaining effective circulation, preventing pressure sores. As a result, many of those residents with pressure sores just aren't improving.

The main thing that has let the home down was the manager. She was an enrolled nurse (which are obselete nowadays), and appeared to be taking some liberties with her job. I was told that she had employed her husband as a handy man, but he never did any work. She arrived late, and left two hours early - and there were rumours of her holding onto some payments from residents that paid in cash; someone told me that she had admitted a patient on cash payment terms and not told the owner until the following week that they had been admitted, pocketing a week's payment. Someone had tipped the owner off and he was beginning to check up on her, ringing later in the afternoon to see if she had left or not. She'll get found out eventually.

CSCI, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, gave the home two out of three stars - a "good" rating. To be honest, I've been to establishments much worse. It's just a shame it's not managed properly and has some pitfalls.

I'm not a massive fan of nursing homes as it is - and this one hasn't yet changed my mind.