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Gillian - My Bluebird Care Journey
I love my job, and to me it doesn’t feel like work.
I’m a qualified nurse and before I joined Bluebird Care I worked in various settings including medical & surgical wards, in children’s services and with older people. I was also Director of Care in a private nursing home.
Looking after people in their own homes was always been something that interested me and in 2018, I joined Bluebird Care as Clinical Nurse Manager.
I’m entering my 6th year with Bluebird Care, and I am now Director of Care for Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary and East Cork. I am responsible for a team of around 300 carers and nurses. We have over 500 customers within the five counties.
I really enjoy meeting the carers, they are the core of our service and we are nothing without them. We are all part of the same team. But it is them who provide the quality care, and as a result we have happy customers who are kept at home and kept well because of them.
Receiving a care call two or three times a day can make all the difference to our customers, it keeps them at home for longer, for years longer. The carers attend to hygiene needs, have the chats, ensure they take their medication regularly, ensure the house is tidy, that the bins are emptied and there’s enough fresh milk in the fridge for tomorrow.
Everybody wants to be at home. Nursing homes are great places for the people that need to be there, but I would say that’s only a small percentage of the population, the bigger percentage wants to remain at home.
We want our customers to feel safe, to be comfortable, to be well looked after and to be kept as independent as possible. Independence gives them the feeling of wellbeing that they deserve, it’s their home, they need to be kept involved in their own care preferences and their everyday life choices. It’s important to treat customers with dignity and respect.
There is a lovely story about Mary who is living with Alzheimer’s, and she has no verbal communication anymore, but she still wears her red patent shoes or her lovely bright pink jumper and earrings, just like she always did. The carers bring her down to the kitchen and her husband says: ‘Oh Mary, you look lovely today.’ It’s so important to treat her with dignity and respect just like we did when she was able to tell us how she liked to dress.
Many people tend to stay away when you’re getting older, they can be afraid to call, they don’t want to be intruding. Sometimes seeing the carers is the only interaction that older people have day to day.
I love to go out and meet the customers, you always get a great reception; they’re delighted to have the help. I like to sing, and often I’ve held the hand of a customer living with dementia and sung a little song with them. As I sing ‘Daisy Daisy, give me your answer do’ they light up and sing along too.
There have been so many special moments for me in my role. Most people want to die at home rather than in hospital and ive been part of a team providing end-of-life care. To be able to be part of that journey with them, at home, is the biggest privilege. It’s hugely rewarding. Families really appreciate it, they often don’t need to say anything, it’s the unspoken words, the family member who takes your hand as you walk out of the door. They look at you and you know they don’t have the words to thank you. There’s no need for a ‘thank you,’ it’s an honor to be there.
The staff and the ethos are what make Bluebird Care so special. There’s a great focus on doing the right thing, ensuring that all our staff are well trained, that they’re well supported and that we provide the care we’d want for our own family.
Bluebird Care feels like a family, and we’re very flexible when it comes to meeting people’s needs and their family commitments. We have weekend work, evening work, Monday to Friday work, and nights, and we have high staff retention.
If you’re thinking about coming into care, you can learn the skills. Having a natural ability to care is something special, to want to care and to want to look after people, you can learn the rest. We want happy people that are kind, compassionate, dedicated, and hard working. Caring is fulfilling and rewarding, you get back ten times as much as you put in.
