Julie Thompson is a registered nurse at Enliven’s Kōwhainui Home in Whanganui. Julie started at the home in 2017 as a health care assistant, and worked at the home while she was studying to be a nurse. On completion of her study she was mentored and trained through Enliven’s First Year of Practice (FYOP) programme and has now been a fully-fledged registered nurse at the home for a year. She says Enliven and the staff at Kōwhainui Home were very helpful and encouraging as she transitioned through the different stages of her professional development, and remain that way today.
She enjoys all aspects of the job, in particular the hands-on nature of the work.
“Being in aged care and working with older people is a passion for me. I was brought up by my grandparents, so that is a big thing for me.”
We caught up with Julie during one of her morning shifts at Kōwhainui Home to see what a day in her shoes was like.
6.30am: The first thing Julie does when she comes in is a handover with the registered nurse who has been on the nightshift. This means she is up to the play with everything that has happened overnight with the residents, such as whether anyone has had a fall.
7am: It’s time for the morning medication round. Julie does the rounds with the medication cart, giving all the residents what they need to start the day. All their medication is loaded onto a resident information system which is accessible via a tablet so she can easily see what each resident requires. Julie also knows how each resident likes to take their medication, such as with water, a bit of yogurt, crushed, or whole. She wants to get the residents’ day off to a good start, so she greets them all with a bright good morning. “If they are having a bit of a down day, I try to have a bit of a joke to put them in a better mood,” she says. This morning Julie is also showing Saranya, a nurse from Enliven’s Competency Assessment Programme, how to do the morning medication run.
9am: Once the morning medications have been given it is time to keep the health care assistants up to date with a handover. Julie goes through the residents that have skin irritants, wounds, pain or other things to keep an eye on, who has returned or gone to hospital, if any residents have had falls, and any other information staff need to know.
9.30am: After handover Julie is called to various places to check on residents, and at one point she is even tasked with trying to fix a resident’s TV! Julie says she tries to help the residents however she can, not just with her medical prowess. She is also in change of the home’s main phone, so she has been taking calls from families and a staff member who has called in sick.
10am: Time for a quick break and a cup of coffee in the staffroom. There aren’t too many moments during the day when Julie gets a chance to get off her feet, so she makes the most of the opportunity to sit down with her coffee and share a few jokes with her colleagues.
10.15am: Julie is back out doing the rounds. She is checking on residents, dressing and evaluating wounds, feeding a resident who is nil by mouth and needs to be feed through a PEG tube (a flexible feeding tube that is placed through the abdominal wall and into the stomach), and resetting a line of apomorphine for a resident who has Parkinson’s disease. During this time she is being pulled in all sorts of directions, answering questions from health care assistants, talking to the clinical coordinator, and looking after residents. “They need to clone me,” she says, smiling. “It’s all good though, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It could get boring if it wasn’t like this.”
11.45am: She finds some time to sit down at the computer and make notes about the residents she has seen in the morning. This is important for keeping track of everything and making sure other staff have all the information they need to support residents in the best way. Julie says she enjoys this time of day because it is a chance to sit down and think about what has happened in the morning.
12.15pm: Julie is up again to help a resident who needs to be hoisted up. While the elder is up, Julie swaps out the resident’s bed for a ‘low-low’ bed, one that goes right to the ground and helps reduce injury if a resident falls out.
1pm: Handover with the afternoon nurse. Just as she received a handover from the overnight nurse, Julie sits down with the incoming nurse and gives them an update of everything that has been happening this morning and anything to watch for in the afternoon.
1.15pm: Once the afternoon nurse is up to speed Julie heads back to the staffroom and sits down for some well-earned lunch.
1.45pm: On her way back from the staffroom Julies sees a resident has fallen trying to go to the bathroom. With the help of a few healthcare assistants that are quickly on the scene they get the elder back up off the floor. The man is unharmed by the fall, but Julie makes sure he will be checked on throughout the day. When she goes back to the computer she calls the resident’s family to tell them about the fall and enters it into her notes.
3pm: Once all of her notes are completed and she has said goodbye to her colleagues it’s time for Julie to head home after another busy day.
