Admiral Nurse – Esther’s story

15 years in dementia care

I have worked in dementia care for 15 years, starting in care homes in London and Somerset. This gave me the opportunity to gain post graduate qualifications in dementia and focus on creating dementia friendly environments where staff were supported to build their skills through specialist dementia training.

I qualified as a RGN from UWE in 2018, after which I worked for 4 years in a GP practice. There, I assessed, diagnosed and supported people living with dementia and their carers to live as well as possible. During this time, I worked with a proactive MDT team, including one of the fantastic Dorothy House specialist nurses.

Advance care planning for patients and their families

I am hugely passionate about ensuring all people living with dementia and their carers have access to timely, appropriate and personalised care, including advance care planning with their decisions being heard and acted on. We know supporting someone with dementia can be very difficult at times. It is important carers feel they have a service that can help signpost and respond to their needs as and when they have a concern.

As an Admiral Nursing service, this is what we will aim to achieve across all aspects and services that Dorothy House offers. The focus to start will be supporting advance care planning for people with dementia, delivering dementia and end of life training for all staff working in a dementia care setting and supporting the community teams with specialised care plans for patients and families.

You can learn more about our Dementia Care services here.