Blog by Louise Brady clinical Practice and Development & Susan Barnes Registered Manager at Mais House
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Mais house is a small but beautifully compact royal British legion care home situated in Bexhill on sea, not far from the famous Battle of Hastings. Throughout the last 12 months, COVID-19 has plighted many our homes and I have witnessed first-hand the dedication, skill expertise and compassion and care of our all-registered managers, and their teams in supporting our residents and their families throughout this difficult and challenging time.
What has been most striking for me across all our homes has been the sheer grit and determination from whole care teams to keep our veterans as well and as healthy as they can be. Keeping residents connected with their families and loved ones, throughout the pandemic remains an everyday priority encompassing both new technology with traditional family visits, ensuring dignity connection and enabling support in end-of-life discussions has been a joy to witness.
In this blog, I would like to pay tribute to the innovation and quality improvement work at Mais House, undertaken by Susan Barnes and her nursing deputy Claire Avery who have excelled in supporting quality infection control measures, as well as upskilling their nursing workforce against the backdrop of Covid-19.
As part of our emergency planning back in March 2020 the Royal British legion provided high grade quality PPE for all staff, IPC audits were scaled up to reflect the size and ergonomics of each home and additional staff were employed at Mais on a permanent basis to support workforce capacity. To minimise and reduce transmission and spread, Susan and team worked incredibly hard to maintain additional staffing capacity by recruiting and retaining new starters locally, without any agency staff. Consequently, these measures have meant Mais house has had a consistently strong core workforce providing the best of care and has successfully remained COVID-19- free and secure throughout both the first and second wave of the Pandemic.
Ensuring adherence to PPE whilst maintaining a homely fun environment that is both friendly and supports quality standards Susan surprised us all by donning a spaceman outfit as part of an Art class to raise awareness of the importance of good control & infection prevention measures. In words of the late great David bowie song
‘‘Ground Control to Major Tom'" Take your protein pills and put your helmet on’ encompasses both the love and the care taken to protect our veterans and their families.
In addition to maintaining day to day Care, Mais house has seen opportunities during the pandemic to upskill their nursing and care workforce. With residents not being able to venture out for routine primary care and community appointments Claire and Susan took the opportunity to train some of their nursing staff in anticoagulant care. Anti-coagulation training amongst nursing staff in our home has reduced resident hospital visits by 90% This is an excellent outcome, and it takes pressure off community services, and means that our staff can extend their knowledge and skills in long term conditions.
Susan articulates the impact ‘Leading the team to deliver the highest standard of care allowed us to think outside the box, this in turn led to reduced pressure to outside services and gave us the opportunity to expand our Skill set and work in partnership with the wider health teams’.
Mais house are currently generating funding for a bladder scanner for their home. It is anticipated that our nurses will be able to work much more cohesively with both primary care and specialist services to optimise access to health care and quality outcomes, following the training programme.
At the heart of each aspect of our care are our resident veterans, and their families. Charles Ward pictured here turned 102 in December last year and lives a full and varied life at Mais house. Charles is pictured with fundraiser and Activities Lead Lee Owen and is a direct beneficiary of the changes made at Mais, over the last few months.
Charles joined the armed forces when he was 21 as a member of the infantry in the North African campaign, Charles met his wife Margaret while in North Africa while Charles was sending messages to agents in France. They were married shortly after the war ended. ‘What Charles teaches us is how to adapt, be flexible and develop’ says Susan our Registered Manager.
Mais House has excelled in this arena, demonstrating an outstanding commitment to progress, quality improvement and innovation in care. The final words from me are a tribute to Susan & team for all their achievements, from the David bowie song!
‘This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare’.
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