HOHC: Tendai Mwenye (International Day of the Nurse)
“For me, what brought me into nursing was wanting to make a difference. When my children were in education, I started a voluntary job, taking people with learning disabilities for days out – to lunch, films, even the London Eye – and I really enjoyed it. It was suggested to me that I should go into nursing.
“After completing my training, I started at UCL in the heart hospital. A month in, I got pregnant with my daughter. The travelling up to London with morning sickness was too much, so I gave it up. Then in 2014, I began working at St George’s on the respiratory ward, starting my respiratory nursing career.
“I started at St Helier Hospital in March last year, a few weeks before the first lockdown, as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Airways Team, but have been redeployed to the community for the last year.
“My current role was created to support care homes and residential homes in Sutton in the pandemic. My role is to manage Covid outbreaks within care settings and offer support to care staff and residents. This includes outbreak management, PPE and infection prevention and control training, and specialist nursing.
“We came up with a tool where homes could report outbreaks and we could put measures in place and stop further infections. With the help of specialist nurses who reviewed patients, we were able to reduce hospital admissions. It was an extremely difficult time, emotionally and mentally, as many homes lost residents and some staff.
“We continue to work with care homes on the vaccination programme and educating them on managing patients with Covid.
“I have found my job rewarding but could not have done all this without the dedicated Care Home Support Team and London Borough of Sutton Public Health Team.
“As we heal from the last year, I would like to remember colleagues who lost their lives doing the work they loved. I shall miss them and will always remember their hard work.”
If you'd like to work for us check out our most recent career opportunities here on our website: https://be-more-epsom.co.uk/
