Heather Keegan
Towcester,Northamptonshire
Summary
As a Learning Disability and Senior Staff Nurse I work to provide specialist care and support to individuals living a learning disability and/or ASD diagnosis, as well as their families/ caregivers, to help them live a fulfilling life.
I currently work on Berry ward, a low secure inpatient mental health unit specializing in men with ASD and mental illness.
My role as a Senior Staff Nurse is support service users to improve and/or maintain their physical and mental health, to collaborate with service users to create person-centered care plans, and to ultimately promote positive clinical outcomes (e.g. reducing level of risk, enabling service users to step down from a low secure setting and to be discharged into setting such as locked-rehab, supporting living or the community.
Overview
2
2
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Senior Staff Nurse
St Andrew's Healthcare
Northampton
2023.06 - Current
- Plan, organise and deploy staff according to competencies and workload in order to meet patient needs.
- Develop, implement, review and promote the importance of effective outcome focused care plans to meet individual preferences and needs, attending and contributing to ward rounds.
- Effectively communicate with all MDT members, taking positive risks to manage the care environment and reduce the use of restrictive practices.
- Build and monitor ongoing relationships with patients, their families and carers to encourage trust, whilst listening to and interpreting their needs and concerns.
- Ensure all patient records, records of risk and interventions that have been taken, are up to date and accurate.
- Use refection and supervision to learn from events and generate opportunities to improve patient outcomes.
- Receive and provide clinical supervision.
Staff Nurse
St Andrew's Healthcare
Northampton
2022.10 - 2023.06
- lan, organise and deploy staff according to competencies and workload in order to meet patient needs.
- Develop, implement, review and promote the importance of effective outcome focused care plans to meet individual preferences and needs, attending and contributing to ward rounds.
- Effectively communicate with all MDT members, taking positive risks to manage the care environment and reduce the use of restrictive practices.
- Build and monitor ongoing relationships with patients, their families and carers to encourage trust, whilst listening to and interpreting their needs and concerns.
- Ensure all patient records, records of risk and interventions that have been taken, are up to date and accurate.
- Use refection and supervision to learn from events and generate opportunities to improve patient outcomes.
- Receive and provide clinical supervision.
Work choice (Bank) HCA
St Andrew's Healthcare
Northampton
2022.02 - 2022.07
- providing day-to-day care and living assistance to patients
- developing treatment plans in collaboration with other healthcare professionals administering medication
- monitoring patients’ physical and mental health and keeping accurate records
- supervising patients to ensure their safety and performing risk assessments
- giving practical support to patients and their families, such as with household tasks, personal care, managing their money and paperwork
- educating patients’ families and those patients live with about mental health issues and how they can help
- providing emotional support and reassurance to patients and their families.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Learning Disability Nursing
University of Northampton
Northampton 2019.10 - 2022.09
CACHE Level 3 Technical Extended Diploma - Health and Social Care
Northampton College
Northampton 2018.09 - 2019.06
CACHE Level 3 Technical Certificate - Health and Social Care
Northampton College
Northampton 2017.09 - 2018.06
Skills
- Medication administration
- Risk assessment
- Staffing schedules
- Patient care
- Discharge planning
- Staff supervision
- Nursing staff leadership
- Vital signs
Additional Information
Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) Champion
In addition to my role as a Senior Staff Nurse I am also the IPC Champion for Berry Ward. My role as an IPC Champion is to attend additional drop-in training sessions about various IPC topics and to relay this information (back to nurses and HCA's on the ward. It is also my role to carry put monthly IPC inspections of the ward.
Staff "Achiever of the week"
Throughout my role as a Staff Nurse and Senior Staff Nurse on Berry I have received multiple nominations from service users to be awarded staff "Achiever of the week" at the end of weekly community meetings on the ward.
References
Jackson Maziva (previous ward manager)
Email: jmaziva@stah.org
Abbie Zipfel (current ward manager)
Email: azipfel@stah.org
Telephone: 01604 533678
Timeline
Senior Staff Nurse
St Andrew's Healthcare
2023.06 - Current
Staff Nurse
St Andrew's Healthcare
2022.10 - 2023.06
Work choice (Bank) HCA
St Andrew's Healthcare
2022.02 - 2022.07
Bachelor of Science - Learning Disability Nursing
University of Northampton
2019.10 - 2022.09
CACHE Level 3 Technical Extended Diploma - Health and Social Care
Northampton College
2018.09 - 2019.06
CACHE Level 3 Technical Certificate - Health and Social Care
Northampton College
2017.09 - 2018.06