Are you a qualified or newly qualified Nurse looking to work in a District Nursing team? Look no further…….
Dorset HealthCare is all about progress and innovation and ensuring we achieve the best possible patient care and health and wellbeing outcomes for all our communities.
We are looking for individuals with excellent communication skills, who pride themselves in the quality of care they provide to patients to work within our District Nursing teams. Currently we have vacancies in
Sherborne
Sturminster Newton
Blandford
Gillingham
Full or part time positions available depending on what you are looking for.
The successful applicants will participate in the delivery of skilled autonomous nursing care to patients within their own home, and will gain an understanding of primary care including the management of long term conditions. You will have an opportunity to broaden your range of skills and knowledge in managing the nursing care or people in their own home or within local clinics.
If you are interested in discussing opportunities in Sturminster Newton or Blandford please contact Vicky Whittingham for an informal conversation on [email protected]
If you are interested in discussing opportunities in Sherborne please contact Caryl Hill for an informal conversation on [email protected]
Despite the job description on my contract with Westleaze Farm stating ‘Assistant Avian Production Manager’, working on a family-run farm means that you have to be prepared for anything any day. Which, in my opinion, is one of the numerous positives of dedicating your working days to the outdoors and animals. Most mornings are spent tending to the farm’s main source of income, our free range layer hens, that at the moment are producing over 7000 eggs a day. Come the afternoon, however, continual lists of seasonal jobs rotate to fill up the remaining duration of the week. Time flies when you jump between TB testing our herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, rearing calves, delivering eggs or tending to the fences and hedges around our farm on the top of the picturesque Beaminster Downs.
Lohmann Brown – image by Andrew Livingston
It is for this reason that when speaking to a farmer, if you catch them as the sun begins to set, they are most likely to exclaim in their Dorset accent the immortal words of ‘there really ain’t enough hours in the day!’ This March, for us, there really won’t be enough hours in the day, as on our poultry unit that we rent on the outskirts of Weymouth we have period known in the industry as ‘turnaround’. In the space of four weeks, we will bid farewell to our current birds and clean and sanitise every inch of the shed that houses them, ready for a new flock of 8000 birds that will hopefully produce around two and a half million eggs over the coming year. The weapon required to lay that quantity of egg is the Lohmann Brown Classic. The bird, which is a crossbreed of the Rhode Island Red and White Rocks, is a finally-tuned athlete and for them to perform at their peak, the conditions of their environment need to be perfect. E. coli, Salmonellosis, Blackhead, Newcastle Disease, Coccidiosis and Avian Influenza (AI) is just a selection of possible health issues for our feathered-friends, if we do not ensure that their new home is bio secure. The latter, AI, has been prevalent in the UK for the last few months and has required for all poultry to be kept indoors to protect them for mixing with wild birds who could be carrying the disease. To ensure the health and welfare of the birds are satisfactory, my month of March will be spent attached to the end of a pressure washer as the ceiling to the floor and the walls to the nest boxes are all cleaned and sterilised. I am hoping for an upturn in temperature as past winter turnarounds have been havoc with the additional stress of frozen water and even deeper frozen fingers.
All the time and dedication will be worth it on the 22nd of the month as the new pullets will begin to populate their pristine shed. Like a child on their first-ever day of school, they will be apprehensive at first, but will soon range and explore their environments. Like the proud father of 8000 squawking girls… I wait in anticipation to find that very first egg.
An exciting opportunity has arisen for two exceptional and experienced beauty therapists to work in the Spa at the Eastbury Hotel in Sherborne.
We are looking for a Full Time Head Therapist for 45 hours per week plus a Part Time Spa Therapist working 30 hours a week. Our Spa works with Caudalie products, previous experience preferable but full training will be provided. Must be willing to be fully flexible and work weekends, Christmas, bank holidays etc.
Required:
Qualified NVQ level 3 Beauty Therapy/complementary therapy or equivalent. At least 2 years spa experience.
Start Date: April for full training.
The Hotel will reopen with the Spa on the 17th May 2021
Competitive rates of pay: Head Therapist £22Kpa
Part Time Therapist £9ph
Dependant on experience, plus commission and excellent staff benefits.
Please contact Gemma Wells on 01935 813131 or email your CV to [email protected]
With a break in the weather, Spring on its way and Boris soon allowing us out to play we can again look forward to the attraction of the outdoors. I have put together some titles to entice and entertain. Wayne
Critically acclaimed novelist Michael Farris Smith pulls Nick Carraway out of the shadows and into the spotlight in this exhilarating imagination of his life before he became the The Great Gatsby. Before Nick Carraway moved to West Egg and into Gatsby’s world, he was at the centre of a very different story – one taking place along the trenches and deep within the tunnels of World War I. Floundering in the wake of the destruction he witnessed first-hand, Nick delays his return home, hoping to escape the questions he cannot answer about the horrors of war. Instead, he embarks on a transcontinental redemptive journey that takes him from a whirlwind Paris romance – doomed from the very beginning – to the dizzying frenzy of New Orleans, rife with its own flavour of debauchery and violence. An epic portrait of a truly singular era and a sweeping, romantic story of self-discovery, this rich and imaginative novel breathes new life into a character that many know only from the periphery. Charged with enough alcohol, heartbreak, and profound yearning to transfix even the heartiest of golden age scribes, Nick reveals the man behind the narrator who has captivated readers for decades.
The famous yellow ‘bible’ for anyone interested in gardens and the 2021 edition is now available. Its 744 pages contain descriptions of the 3,700 gardens opening to visitors throughout England and Wales this year, and offers people unique access to the most beautiful gardens in the country.
From the bestselling author and rewilding pioneer Isabella Tree, When We Went Wild is a heartwarming, sustainably printed picture book about the benefits of letting nature take the lead, inspired by real-life rewilding projects. Nancy and Jake are farmers. They raise their cows and pigs, and grow their crops. They use a lot of big machines to help them, and spray a lot of chemicals to get rid of the weeds and the pests. That’s what all good farmers do, isn’t it? And yet, there is no wildlife living on their farm. The animals look sad. Even the trees look sad! One day, Nancy has an idea… what if they stopped using all the machines, and all the chemicals, and instead they went wild? The author’s own experience of rewilding her estate at Knepp has influenced conservation techniques around the world that are bringing nature back to the countryside and bringing threatened species back from the brink.
In 2022 Winstone’s will celebrate 10 years as Sherborne’s Independent Bookseller. Winstone’s has won the ‘British Book Awards South West Bookseller of the Year’ four times and was winner of the ‘Independent Bookseller of the Year’ national award in 2016. Owner Wayne Winstone was previously one of the three judges for the Costa Prize for Fiction. This year Wayne was selected as one of the top 100 people in the Book Trade’s Most Influential Figures listing.
I trained to become a veterinary nurse in Australia in 2008. The diploma course is very similar to the UK, a 3 year training program at a Veterinary Practice to gain practical skills with day release to college for theoretical knowledge. However, I have found the standard of nursing in the UK far exceeds the standard in Australia that I personally experienced in practice. The nurses at Damory are very technical and the level of education and exams they have to undergo to become a Registered Nurse are far more in depth compared to the course I took 12 years ago in Australia. The level of care, experience and skills the nursing team have to offer are exceptional and in many ways Damory would be classed as a Referral Centre in Australia.
As aforementioned, I started my career in a Practice in Australia and my nursing role was very similar to the role I have at Damory Veterinary Clinic; taking blood samples, assisting with radiography, monitoring anaesthesia, animal husbandry, Puppy PreSchool (puppy parties) and reception duties.
The main contrast between nursing in Australia and nursing in the UK are the emergency cases that are seen. An emergency often seen in Australia is tick paralysis. Once the tick bites the dog the paralysis agent is secreted through the saliva. The dog is then presented as an emergency with paralysis of the hind legs. Unless a serum is administered, the toxin spreads through the body, eventually reaching the lungs which then progresses to respiratory failure. The patient then has to be transferred to a referral centre to be placed onto a ventilator until the toxin is excreted from the body.
Heat Stroke is another emergency situation I saw more regularly in Australia. Living in a hot and humid climate, it is very difficult to keep animals cool. Once they become overheated, you have to cool them down immediately otherwise their bodies go into shock which can result in organ failure and in some cases death.
Local wildlife in Australia also differed greatly compared to the UK. On a night shift at Damory you could have up to 5 hedgehogs in at any one time and in Australia it would be Fruit Bats which are the size of a small cat! Or a Possum or Cockatoo!!! Fruit bats were usually hospitalised due to suffering electrocution from flying into overhead cables. They arrived stunned and unconscious. It was our role to administer fluids whilst they were unconscious and then could be transferred to a rescue centre to recover and then released. Possums were hospitalised usually after being involved in Road Traffic Accidents, whereby the mother suffered an injury, we would then have to check the pouch to see if there were any babies and if so, they would require hand feeding. There were initially rehabilitated in the Practice before being transferred to a rescue centre.
Here in the UK, one of the most common emergencies that I have experienced are animals involved in Road Traffic Accidents. I witnessed these far less whilst nursing in Australia, which I suspect is down to the legislation regarding ownership of a dog. In Australia all dogs are required to be on a lead at all times, there are designated dog parks where they are able to run off lead. If you do not abide by the rules, there are Park Rangers who will issue a fine of up to $300.
In conclusion I have enjoyed my experience of working in both countries. I am extremely happy and proud to have been part of the Damory team for the past 6 years and I am very excited to continue learning and expanding my knowledge and skills within this team.
A health and inclusion coach is one of the three editors of a book which has reached the Amazon bestseller lists.
Jackie Arnold, who lives near Blandford Forum, said the book – Empowerment in Health and Wellness – was highly relevant to present times.
Available in paperback and Kindl, it offers approaches from professionals working with the mind-body connection to reduce stress and anxiety, build motivation and enable individuals to understand and respond to their needs.
The book details the impact of the three pillars of health and wellness: awareness, information and learning.
It provides a framework to deepen professional knowledge, skills and confidence to support others in times of uncertainty and crisis.
The methods and content outline the experiences that continually come from supporting cancer patients, carers and their families at the Fountain Centre, a UK charity working with the National Health Service.
Jackie Arnold
Jackie Arnold worked for more than 30 years in organisations around the globe supporting senior leaders.
She joined the Cancer Fountain Centre, part of Surrey Hospital NHS Trust, in 2017 as a volunteer support coach and supervisor.
In 2020 the team of coaches, supporting all those impacted by cancer, came together to create a service and write the book.
It is aimed at health and care professionals, HR and leaders in organisations who are supporting both cancer and Covid-19 patients who need support in times of uncertainty and change.
