Belong Staff Crowned Winners At The Great North West Care Awards
Three Belong registered nurses have been crowned winners at the Great North West Care Awards, and will now go forward to the national finals of the Great British Care Awards. Belong Macclesfield’s Kate Jauffur won the ‘Care Trainer Award’ and John Summerton was awarded the ‘Good Nurse Award’ whilst Belong Atherton lead nurse, Nicola Johnstone, won the ‘Palliative Care Award’. The awards seek to recognise and celebrate people who provide excellent care for older people.
Practice Development Facilitator, Kate Jauffur, has shown great success in tailoring her training to suit the needs of different learners and has introduced innovative training schemes to the village, which has led to improved care for residents. Kate has also instigated a ‘Buddy Scheme’ to encourage a learning exchange between the village and the East Cheshire Hospice and has recently introduced Namaste training for care teams, so that they can provide one-to-one sensory therapy for people with dementia at the end of their life.
John Summerton was inspired to make the switch from his NHS management position to joining Belong after experiencing the village as a relative. He is passionate about ensuring a ‘person first’ approach and puts any nursing interventions in the context of the person’s whole life – in terms of ‘being with’ not ‘doing to’.
Atherton’s Nicola Johnstone has previously received recognition for her work, winning two awards in the recent ‘Hospice in your Care Home Awards’, run by Wigan and Leigh Hospice.
Earlier this year, she also led the village to achieve the Gold Standard Framework for care at end-of-life, for which Belong Atherton received a rating of ‘Commended’ for its outstanding approach. She supports household staff and families to sensitively discuss difficult, but necessary end-of-life decisions, and leads her team in providing emotional as well as practical support.
Phil Orton, head of people at Belong, said: “All staff members at Belong work tirelessly to ensure that the best care possible is provided to our customers and I am delighted that the dedication of three members of our team has been recognised by winning these awards and going forward as finalists in the prestigious, national Great British Care Awards. We wish them the very best of luck in the final stage of this competition!”
The national award winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 31st March 2017, after attending the final round of interviews.
