Staff Stories
Robert - As an RMN and now acting Service Manager for RF, Robert says it feels great to be appreciated and acknowledged.
Barbara - Barbara is enjoying working in the supportive, homely environment that we provide for our Service Users andSstaff alike.
Robert
I worked in the NHS for 20 years before coming to work for Richmond Fellowship. Towards the end of that time, I was getting worn out by the physical demands of the job - including permanent night shifts. I often felt that I was not included in decision making and I had to push to attend training courses.
Three years ago I was a Staff Nurse on night duty. After joining RF 18 months ago I am now Acting Service Manager of a service housing 10 people with severe mental illness.
I'm enjoying my job tremendously. I am allowed to question things here. I have a say as well as lots of support and encouragement and training. All the Staff I have met here and in other RF services are friendly and fun to be with. It all contrasts with my experiences in the health service where often people who had worked on the same wards as you for years could not remember your name.
I find in this organisation that there is an emphasis on building real relationships with people, both Staff and Service Users.
If you have ever worked in acute units you will understand how great it is to see someone being discharged. Working for RF, you'll see them through that process and beyond. You'll eventually meet people in the street ages after you've worked with them and imagine how good it will be when they remember you, when they still look well and when they say thanks for everything you've done. It feels great to be appreciated, to be acknowledged.
Barbara
I work in one of Richmond Fellowship's care homes with nursing. Here, RF has created a relaxed, friendly and homely environment for people who have severe and enduring mental health problems.
I enjoy my job because of the challenge that each Service User brings. I became a mental health nurse so that I could support people just like those I work with now and working for RF, you are in your turn supported to do just that. I would encourage other nurses to experience the type of professionalism, team work and relaxed atmosphere that I do. My experience of working in hospitals is that they can be rigid and impersonal places where service users may become institutionalised.
Here, Staff are encouraged to provide a caring, supportive, homely environment in which the Service Users rights and dignity are respected and their abilities stretched. Due to decent staffing levels, I have been able to build up trusting relationships with Clients and even take some people out on trips.
I also found that RF was as committed to developing its Staff as well as its Service Users. We are offered training that is not only relevant to Service Users needs but makes it easy to keep up on research based practice. I wouldn't want to work anywhere else.