East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative (EMPSC) has recognised the achievements of care homes in the region in their latest care home awards. This time the EMPSC looked for care homes that showed examples of ‘Improvement Leadership’ within their teams.

Michelle Achilenos, Kat Taylor and Emma Mallen from Ashfields Care Home in Derbyshire were announced as the main winner at the ‘Connecting Together’ care home webinar on 14 July.

The three staff members volunteered to become End-of-Life Champions and they ensure they give residents the best end of life care as possible. They gather information from residents as to what matters to them, they develop individualised care plans to ensure wishes and needs are met, and they identify and fulfil bucket lists.

They also attend monthly end of life care meetings, actively seeking ideas from the rest of the team. They played a central role in Ashfields Care Home achieving Derbyshire End of Life Accreditation and have also developed an information leaflet for relatives, special end of life care baskets and condolence cards.

Watch the winner’s announcement

Jose Greveson, Care Home Manager, who made the nomination said:

‘The three staff members have a deep passion and enthusiasm for ensuring the care home delivers outstanding and innovative end of life care. Residents are supported ensuring that their end-of-life wishes are achieved, whether it’s an easy to achieve goal like playing the residents favourite music, sitting holding their hand or a more challengeable task, the End-of-Life Champions will do everything possible to fulfil the wish.’

EMPSC also awarded Springwater Lodge Care Home in Nottingham a Highly Commended award. Nominated by Katie Simms, Wellbeing Coordinator at the care home, the team were described as working extremely hard together to ensure residents have the best and kindest care possible. As a team, the care home staff are encouraged to think outside the box and support residents in taking positive risks to improve quality of life.

Katie shared one example of the team’s thoughtfulness:

‘One resident had a daughter who lived in Spain, the resident wanted her daughter to be with her as she approached the end of her life – which was during COVID. The care home manager, Mihaela, supported the daughter who lived in Spain with the documentation required by the Spanish and UK authorities to allow her to travel to be with her mother.

‘During the resident's last two weeks of life, the care home manager Mihaela and the team allowed her daughters to spend as much time as they wanted with their mother, providing sleeping and showering facilities, meals, drinks, and snacks. The family were incredibly grateful; this led to the conversion of two double bedrooms into end-of-life rooms, which have a walk-in shower and a sofa bed so that families can spend as much time as they want to with their loved ones.’

The East Midlands care home awards are part of the quarterly ‘Connecting Together’ webinars for care homes and give the chance for anyone working with the care home sector to shine a light on carers and show them how appreciated they are, by nominating them for an award.

The theme for the November 2022 awards is ‘Involving and working with residents and/or their families in projects to improve care’. A nomination form can be downloaded here. Entries close midday on Monday 12th September.

The Connecting Together network of care homes is led by the East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative, part of East Midlands Academic Health Science Network. It delivers the NHS national Patient Safety Improvement Programmes, including work with care homes to improve the management of deterioration – how to spot and manage when a resident’s condition worsens.

Find more information on our support for care homes and register for future Connecting Together webinars.