Matron/Manager
Mrs Rachel Kemp RN, DWS became matron in 1994 after being deputy and prior to that a wound nurse in the University College of Medicine, Cardiff.
She has been devoted to the training of members of staff. We have achieved our 50% of staff with NVQ’s. She also supports the qualified staff in maintaining their professional development.
Rachel teaches many courses in College Fields that include manual handling, palliative care and infection control. This ensures that the staff are able to give the best possible, evidenced based practice at all times.
Mrs Rachel Kemp RN, DWS became matron in 1994 after being deputy and prior to that a wound nurse in the University College of Medicine, Cardiff.
She has been devoted to the training of members of staff. We have achieved our 50% of staff with NVQ’s. She also supports the qualified staff in maintaining their professional development.
Rachel teaches many courses in College Fields that include manual handling, palliative care and infection control. This ensures that the staff are able to give the best possible, evidenced based practice at all times.
This is College Fields web site with larger print and few photos for quick uploading for slow connections.
For the main web site click here
For the main web site click here
Welcome to the College Fields Nursing Home.
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College Fields is home to many people. The members of staff recognise this and do all they can to make the environment as friendly as their traditional family home. Indeed, they like to think that it is one large happy family. It is recognised that the residents have chosen to come as a result of needing specialist care and look for the reassurance that the trained and qualified staff are at hand when needed. Residents also enjoy welcoming their own families or at times want to have their own ‘space’.
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This is their home and they choose when they wish to be sociable and when they don’t. To help residents enjoy life to the best of their ability everything is done to make residents’ lives as varied and interesting as possible. There can be nothing worse than being told to sit in a chair in a communal living room with one’s back to a wall with a television blasting out a programme that is hated. That does not happen at College Fields. Occasionally, the large HD television will be on in the lounge for occasions like Wales playing rugby, a royal wedding or when the group who have chosen to be in the lounge want a particular programme on, otherwise the lounge is for a quiet change of surroundings or one group may be enjoying making crafts whilst others are pleased to be looking on. Indeed, recently the cooking club has been very popular.
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Professional artists visit regularly to put on concerts. Other times the staff entertain and when they dress up the residents really like the fun and games and the traditional songs that are sung. All in all if a resident wants to watch a particular programme on the television or listen to a radio then they are able to choose what they watch or listen to in the privacy of their own room as a TV has been supplied to every bedroom.
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Contacting families can also be important to some residents so every room has the capability to have a telephone extension. There is the house’s own WiFi so residents can bring their own computers to ‘skype’ their residents who aren’t able to visit often. Some of the residents’ families live in away, in Canada and Australia for example and this can be an important way of keeping in touch.
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The physical well being of our residents is so important as well as their psychological well being. There are about 90 members of staff and whilst not all of them are qualified nurses or qualified nurse assistants they all want to make the residents lives fulfilled. Often domestic staff will be seen talking or helping residents with their lunches for example. The handymen don’t just do the odd jobs, that are never ending in such a large complex building, but will spare a few moments to have a chat to residents. The kitchen staff are not only interested in presenting wholesome, nutritious food but want to meet residents to find out what they like or don’t like, to try and tailor the meals to the individual resident’s fancies. It goes without saying that special diets are catered for and pureed meals don’t come out of a tub or a tube but are the everyday food presented attractively but in a form that is correct for that particular individual.
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The qualified staff prepared individual care plans for each resident. There medications are carefully administered and recorded. Treatments are given. The experience of the qualified nurses enables them to look at the symptoms and know when to call in primary care GPs or ask for specialist advice. Very occasionally, they have been known to question GPs and specialists when it appears to them that other considerations need to be taken into account, often this results in a rethink on the part of the professionals with the best interests of the resident in mind. Sometimes visits have to be made to outpatients, either at Barry Community, Llandough, the ‘Heath’ or Rookwood hospitals. When this occurs residents may be able to take advantage of our own minibus rather than be faced with a long wait for an ambulance to take them and an even longer wait to come home. When it is not being used elsewhere, our minibus enables residents to face the minimum disruption to their day, not to be exhausted at the end of the session, and reassured in the knowledge that they will be accompanied by someone who they know and who knows their individual circumstances. However, sometimes an ambulance has to be booked as the bus is already in use with another resident. These events do not happen often and we try to alter events so that as many as possible can be transported and no-one is disrupted unnecessarily.
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The minibus also comes in very handy to take residents on outings. Outings are just that. They don’t have to be major adventures but the opportunity to do what many of us would consider everyday activities. A visit to the Knap beach and enjoying an ice cream is fine. So is a visit to a supermarket or craft shop, ideally with a spouse or family member. We have been to a farm, seen the Christmas lights in Cardiff city centre with fish and chips at Harry Ramsden’s in the bay afterwards. These activities make living normal, or at least as normal to a former life as possible.
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The building we live in is a magnificent listed building. Built about 100 years ago as a residential block for the then new teachers training college, it is full of character. It enjoys an enviable position with views over the Bristol Channel and the Waterside. The rooms are of individual sizes adding to the character and interest. Many of the fine features of the original building have been retained like the panelled walls to the main lounge and dining rooms, the fine wood block floors that not only look superb but also are easily kept clean and infection free. The main atrium stair well and original staircases greet you when you enter the main door. Recently we have replaced the main lift that serves each floor. Unlike many traditional buildings on the upper floors there are NO steps or staircases to access any of the rooms. On the ground floor all but two bedrooms are on the one level as are the main lounge and dining room. The two bedrooms have their own platform wheelchair friendly lift to access them. If the building were to be redesigned then there is almost next to nothing that would be wanted to be changed.
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In other areas of this web site you will find sections on staff, their various skills; the small print including the regulatory bodies reports on us; equipment that we use in the home for the safety of residents and staff alike, and how to contact us.
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