Support Workers and Team Leaders are the glue that holds Northern Healthcare together – they are essential to the day-to-day running of our organisation. But what does a day in their life look like?
“The role of a Support Worker/Team Leader is the most important in our industry, they are at the heart of everything we do. They help meet the person-centred wishes, choices, and outcomes of each resident. They also aid every resident to become the best version of themselves and help them work towards independence.” – Amanda Hartley, Service Manager at Holland House
“Words are not enough to highlight the importance and appreciation for our frontline Support Workers and Team Leaders. We also understand the importance of supporting staff wellbeing due to being exposed to sometimes difficult working conditions, and the emotional impact this can have. We aim to support the wellbeing of our staff through good organisational leadership and supportive work culture, this results in high standards of support towards our residents, which then collaboratively empowers residents to live more independently.” – Chloe Hills, Service Manager at Milnshaw House
Today, we are taking you through the life of our Team Leader, Kelly Gale, from Amy Johnson House:
It is time to wake up! I get myself ready, feed the animals and grab my coffee before heading out the door. It is my first day back at work after a weekend off – I am certainly ready to get back to work!
As I arrive, I am greeted by the night staff, who provide a verbal handover before they head off to get some rest themselves. After this, the team splits up to complete morning tasks including daily fire checks, cleaning audits, and let us not forget the morning brews, delegated by myself.
I head to my desk and log on to read the handover provided by my respective Team Leader before catching up on residents’ notes. Here, I am able to gather further intel and understanding of the events of recent days, starting to form my daily to-do list based on tasks that need to be completed.
I understand that a resident appears to be experiencing a decline in their mental health. I put together an email communicating concerns to their community care team and head into my Service Manager’s office to debrief. We agree that the resident should be brought up in our escalation call later today so that clinical leads within the organisation can remain apprised, offering support where possible.
A few more assignments are added to my list before I head off to support with morning medications and squeeze in a few competitive games of pool and darts with residents to get the day going, although this usually results in a loss for me!
It is now mid-morning and time for our ‘Safety Huddle’. The ‘Safety Huddle’ is a meeting where we assess the current risk of residents at Amy Johnson House and identify any “top risk” residents, identifying the risks they are currently posing to themselves or others and putting plans in place to help mitigate these identified risks. The Safety Huddle also allows every staff member on shift to voice any concerns about our resident’s mental health, physical health, and any safeguarding concerns. In today’s meeting, we identified two top-risk residents and documented accurately what plans are in place before we work this into our morning briefing.
Using my ‘Resident Activity Sheet,’ I can track which staff members can offer support to which residents. This ensures that all appointments and pre-planned activities are covered with support for the day, whilst prioritising that every resident is seen, safe, and offered support. This also helps even out the workload through effective delegation throughout the team, whilst ensuring time for staff breaks.
Today, with the resident mentioned experiencing a mental health decline, a Support Worker has agreed to prioritise their support. Our other team members aim to offer support with cleaning, baking, key worker sessions, a bowling match in the town centre, and coffee out in the community.
With assignments delegated and an outlined vision of the day ahead, we are a go! Today is audit day – this includes legionella checks and infection prevention. I decided to get them done now whilst some residents are still sleeping. I also set up a staff member in the meeting room to do online training.
Returning downstairs, I am met with two residents who ask me to support them in heading out for breakfast, having not seen me on shift for a few days. I ensure there is a safe number of staff in the building, accept and grab my coat, heading out to a café of their choice. Today, this is Café Nero, where we sit by the window and catch up over a coffee. With no concerns being raised, this appears to be a positive interaction that I can note on the system when I return to the office.
Most residents are now awake, including a resident who needs to pick up their medication. I find it appropriate to make a quick call to the pharmacy to confirm that their medication is ready. After this, I ask a staff member to encourage the residents to tend to their care before offering support in picking up their medication. After showering and changing their clothes, they head off to complete the task.
I notice that a resident appears pale in complexion but encouraging them to access medical help may be a challenge due to their fear of medical personnel. With implied consent, they allow me to take their vital signs including blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation levels and temperature. These appeared different from their baseline and after 1:1 emotional support, they consented to contact 111, who assured me that a clinician would call back within 2 hours. As I relay this to them and put the phone down, it immediately starts ringing; I am in for a busy shift!
Another resident’s care team discussed options with me that they feel may be beneficial as well as a visit being scheduled for tomorrow. This is immediately relayed to the resident, who appears to be experiencing increased paranoia surrounding the outcome. Assessing the risk and reviewing previous coping strategies, we work 2:1 as we encourage them to head into a quiet part of the community before getting some food. This appears to be effective for now as they appear calmer, and their presentation reduces relapse indicators.
As we arrived back to the unit, so did a team member and resident who collected medication – the resident accepted support in taking their medication before heading upstairs to await their activity for the day. A team member helps me sign all medication in, checking against the ordering sheet and current MARS charts to assess if we still need to chase anything. There is a medication missing, which I make it my mission to chase, contacting the GP to enquire about its status.
As I am working on this, it is time for the activity of the day: baking. Our residents are ready to go with a Support Worker, who is capturing the team efforts with pictures!
It is now late afternoon, so it is time to grab myself some food and re-load on coffee before re-consulting my activity sheet to re-assess where we are up to.
I call staff through to the office to commence the evening briefing, or as we sometimes like to call it, the positivity briefing, assessing where staff members are up to with their tasks and if anything needs to be changed, and offering praise for acts that demonstrate going above and beyond. We have made some good progress so far today and have supported in achieving some good goals and activities, but the day is not over yet; there is still some work to be done!
As team members split off once more to fulfil their last few assignments for the day, I ask a Support Worker to remain with me in the office as I complete their supervision, assessing their PROUD values and putting plans in place to aid their development. I remain in the office afterwards to complete some care certificate observations for another team member.
It is almost time to go home! We start the handover process, but a resident asks to be supported on a walk. A team member takes this as an opportunity to complete a key worker session with them as other team members begin the short-written handovers via the documentation system. I write out the paper handover ready for the night shift. Once completed, we have just enough time to squeeze in a few more rounds of pool to even the scores before night staff arrive on shift. Upon doing so, I am able to finish the shift by leading the verbal handover and thanking the other team members for their efforts.
It is now time to pack up and head home, resting up for another day at the service tomorrow.
We are always looking for great talent to join our team here at Northern Healthcare.
Find out more about working for Northern Healthcare and view our current vacancies here.
You can read about our other services, and what they get up to, here.
