Bluebell Nursing Home

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.

Most people and relatives spoke positively about the staff describing them as kind and caring. A relative told us, “The staff are very good, I’m not worried at all.” Another relative said, “The carers are wonderful.” A person told us, “The staff are lovely.”

We observed positive and caring interactions between staff and people. Staff demonstrated a compassionate approach with people and showed warmth and respect during interactions, ensuring people felt valued and listened to. Staff knew the people they supported well and demonstrated they understood people’s needs, wishes and what was important to them. For example, we saw staff talking to people about subjects they were particularly interested in and they ensured people had access to personal items of which people had an emotional attachment to.

The provider treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. They took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.

People’s care plans included details about what was important to each person. This included how they wished to be addressed, their sexuality, communication needs, their faith or spiritual beliefs and their culture.

Staff spoken with clearly knew the people they supported and were able to describe how people liked to receive care, their personal preferences and what was important to them. During our inspection visits we heard staff talk to people about subjects they were interested in, and we observed some people’s rooms were individualised to people’s tastes and interests.

A person told us, “The chef comes in of a morning and asks what I’d like to eat, I like salmon with asparagus and new potatoes, and I get it when I want it.”

The provider promoted people’s independence, so people knew their rights and had choice and control over their own care, treatment and wellbeing.

Care plans viewed contained detailed information about the level of support people required and what they could do for themselves. Staff described to us how they promoted and encouraged people to remain independent. A staff member said, “I will encourage people to do what they can, like give them the flannel to wash their face or prepare their toothbrush so they can clean their teeth.

People and their relatives told us, people were supported to be independent. A person said, “I can now go to the toilet alone.” We observed staff supporting people to maintain their independence, by offering encouragement to do things, ensuring they had equipment available to them, such as walking frames and by cutting up food where required to help ensure they could eat independently.

A healthcare professional confirmed staff supported and encouraged a person to regain their independence.

During our inspection we heard staff offer people choices about their care, including but not limited to what they wanted to eat and drink and where they wanted to spend their time. Most people confirmed they were offered choices including, when they wanted to get up or go to bed, if they wanted a bath/shower or wash and any particular activities they wished to partake in.

The provider listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress.

During our assessment visits we observed staff mostly responded promptly to people and provided reassurance appropriately. We also observed call bells were answered within reasonable times, which was confirmed when we reviewed the providers regularly completed call bell analysis. Staff were visible and accessible throughout the service, staff rotas reflected what the management team told us about staffing levels and a dependency assessment demonstrated an understanding of the level of support people required.

With the exception of call bell response times, people and relatives did not raise any concerns in relation to the responsiveness of the staff.

The management team and staff described how they acted on concerns linked to people's care and health by escalating them to the appropriate professionals. On review of people’s care records, it was noted referrals had been made to healthcare specialists where required.

The provider cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff, and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.

The management team understood the need to make reasonable adjustments for staff who may have social, religious or cultural needs to fulfil and individually tailored support for staff could be offered if specific situations arose.

Staff emotional wellbeing had been considered and staff had access to a wellbeing application and an employee assistance program, where they could get advice or support 24-hours a day. Additionally, regular on-site visits were undertaken by the providers human resources team to allow staff to discuss any issues they had with them on a face-to-face basis. Reward schemes such as employee of the month were in place and regular staff meetings and staff feedback surveys were carried out.