Llandudno care home staff experience what it is like to be a resident

Through this induction, called Experiential Learning, staff had the opportunity to experience first-hand what it might feel like to be a resident and receive personal care and support while living in a care home.

They were presented with various challenges, such as wearing a wet incontinence pad throughout the training session and assisting each other with personal hygiene (washing face and neck.)

The activities were carried out twice to demonstrate poor and good practices.

The aim was to help give them a better understanding of how residents should be cared for, and develop a greater sense of empathy in their roles.

Image 1: Staff member Rositsa Ivanova pushes Katy Brennecke in a wheelchair at RMBI Home Queen Elizabeth Court in Llandudno.

Bee Baily, Queen Elizabeth Court’s Training Manager, said: “All staff at our Home, at every level, have been through this training.

"It’s part of our induction process.

"We feel it makes such a difference when we get to experience being in the residents’ shoes, rather than to read or hear about it. It really emphasises people’s understanding of each individuals’ needs.”

As part of the training session, staff members also took part in a variety of scenarios, such as:

• Being pushed in a wheelchair with artificially impaired vision
• Being supported to eat a meal by another trainee
• Having their face and neck washed by another trainee
• Being left on their own in an empty room whilst unable to move from their chair

The programme was first launched in 2014 and has been refined and expanded with different scenarios in recent years. Louise Bateman, Group Human Resources Director at RMBI Care Co., says: “Learning through experience can be very powerful; this programme has become a vital tool in supporting new staff members to empathise with residents and to care with compassion. We want to ensure that we recruit individuals not solely upon their technical skills or abilities, but on the basis of their values and attitudes to care.”

Staff members at RMBI Home Queen Elizabeth Court in Llandudno.

Home Manager, Michelle Beer, said: “This training emphasises the importance of being in someone else’s shoes and treating others the way you want them to treat you.”

RMBI Home Queen Elizabeth Court in Llandudno is run by RMBI Care Co, part of the Masonic Charitable Foundation.