personal care | Secure Healthcare Solutions

What you need to know about Sepsis as a Nurse!

Sepsis causes the deaths of normally 5 per hour in the UK and an exceptionally large number worldwide. Sepsis is still one of the many diseases that can kill an overall healthy adult within hours. Our specialised trained nurses here at Secure Healthcare Solutions are well trained in all aspects of care and can provide a tailored service of care to you or your loved ones.

The key symptoms are confusing such as not passing urine as normal, they have temperatures either high or low; shivering uncontrollably and having the sweats; cold/blotched legs and arms. When faced with symptoms like these, becoming worse, a set of observations should be taken promptly.

Some of these symptoms can indicate shock and organ failure due to sepsis.

There are 2 significant factors of shock that can develop when you get sepsis:

Cold Shock

Cardiac output decreases due to sepsis-included dysfunctions the heart and the cardiovascular system
Initial constriction of small blood vessels may cause falsely reassuring normal blood pressure (it’ll be known in the fast heart rate)
Dropping in blood pressure
Your skin becomes blotchy/clammy and cold
The low cardiac input and result into the patient going into cardiac arrest

Warm Shock

Skin flushes due to sepsis-included dilation (small blood vessels)
Increases heart rate which maintains the increased cardiac output
Blood pressure will normally rise
Hypotensive cardiac arrest

Young children and infants and elderly people may have a non-specific symptom of sepsis which can be hard to diagnose but are rapidly progressive, with a high risk of death. Babies and young children can often show an advance state of shock. Patients or service users with known infections such as chest infections etc or risk factors due to underlying conditions are particularly vulnerable.

Risk assessment and good basic observations are the best way to find out if the patient has sepsis or if they just have a simple infection. If the patient or service user looks seriously ill, consider sepsis, and report a review to be held with clinical team.

Health professionals should retain they key symptoms, ensure early diagnosis, effective communication, and quick and simple treatments so that patients’ chances of survival increase.

Secure Healthcare Solutions will be able to provide top quality care to you or your family members. We have complex trained nurses based around Northampton, Nottingham, Leeds, Coventry, Manchester, Worcester, Peterborough, Hereford, Northampton.

Our specialised trained nurses will be able to accommodate your in-home care whether its 24-hour support to a few hours a day. Secure Healthcare Solutions can provide it for you.

To find out how we could support you click the link below:

https://securehealthcaresolutions.co.uk/

Keeping Safe When You Have Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a serious neurological condition that can affect many people at any age at any moment in life. Epilepsy affects around 1 in every 100 people in the UK and every day 87 people are diagnosed with it.

Most children and young people with Epilepsy can still enjoy and take part in their day-to-day activities, but if their seizures are not in control fully, they will need some extra safety measures to protect them from harm. Secure Healthcare Solutions has many emergency rescue medication-trained staff who deal with epilepsy service users on a daily basis and can help you or your family!

Tips on keeping children and young people safe that have epilepsy:

Swimming- Always have a lifeguard poolside, and a responsible adult to watch over the individual who has epilepsy
Heights- Not having the individual who has epilepsy stand more than twice their standing height without having a responsible individual having close supervision
Alcohol- Drinking can have a major effect on your epilepsy and risk of seizures.
Drugs- Drugs can trigger seizures, so explaining to children and young adults that they are at high risk of having more seizures when abusing drugs

The use of guards on your heaters and radiators to stop you from falling on them directly and installing smoke detectors to let you know that your food is burning if you were to forget what you are doing in the case of your seizure, it has affected where you can lose your awareness.

Covering your furniture edges that are sharp or stick out, in case of a seizure and you have a fall will protect you from any injuries that can be caused.

Do not lock the bathroom door, in case of a seizure and you are in the bathroom, the access will be easier for the responsible individual to come in and support you in case of an emergency.

Place your saucepans on the back of the stove and not the front with the handles turned away from the edge of the cooker.

Most individuals with epilepsy can take part in sports and other leisure activities but there will be some precautions you might need to take if your seizures are not well controlled. For example, avoid doing water sports on your own such as swimming, wearing a helmet when you are riding a bike, and avoiding certain types of gym equipment, For stuff like this, you can ask the gym staff for advice.

If you are driving or hold a driving license, you must tell the DVLA if you have a seizure. Your license may be taken away if your seizures aren’t under control. When you can reapply for a license depends on the type of seizure you had. For example, for individuals who have seizures it has caused them to lose consciousness, you won’t be able to reapply until they have not had any seizures for a minimum of a year.

Epilepsy does not affect your ability to have children and there’s no reason why you won’t be able to have a healthy pregnancy. If you have epilepsy and are planning on having a baby, make sure you discuss this with your doctor first.

Secure Healthcare Solutions offers support to individuals who have epilepsy and many other complex needs. To find out more click on our link below to see what and how we can support

https://securehealthcaresolutions.co.uk/care-at-home/complex-specialist-care-service/

Benefits of working in care with Secure Healthcare Solutions

Working in care is a rewarding job where you get the chance to succeed and help people with their progression back to their normal lives. Secure Healthcare Solutions has many options to help with your care career.

Jobs available:
 Home care
 Complex Care
 Community care
 Nursing Care Homes
 NHS

Flexibility:
Working in community care gives you the flexibility in your working hours, where you can work on certain runs in and around your home life. For example, Secure Healthcare Solutions has runs that can vary from 06:00-14:00 or 14:00-23:00. We have many carers who work with us who work around school runs for their children, this is a benefit for working with the community care team with Secure Healthcare Solutions.

Training:
Another benefit for working in care is the progression you can make. To start off in your care career majority of people start off in home care/community care to gain the right amount of experience. After working a certain period of time, this can vary from 6 months to maybe a year. Secure Healthcare Solutions offers in house training for our staff and clinical support to help you gain the sufficient amount of experience to either go into working in nursing or care home even can go into the complex care team where you will be dealing with service users who have 24-hour care with a more clinical background of care.

Sociable Job:
Working In care gives you the opportunity to be sociable by working with other carers and providing a service of care to different individuals. Working in Community care for Secure Healthcare Solutions allows you to meet new service users and carers nearly every hour, going from house-to-house building and maintaining a relationship with many different people. Also working in Care homes and nursing homes will allow you to be very sociable, working with many different service users and members of staff every day.

No two days will be the same:
Working in care with Secure Healthcare Solutions is going to be an excellent choice for yourself, It’s a fun and enjoyable journey if you don’t like your days to be boring!

The great thing about working in care homes is that you are never sure on exactly what is going to happen from one hour to the next Yourself and your colleagues will be working together and creating an enjoyable environment for the patients that are in your care. What exactly this means is likely to depend on the particular interests of the residents and their family members. This means you’ll be invited to explore a wider range of varied activities.

Rewarding:
There are a few things more fundamentally rewarding than caring for someone else. Whether this is helping to empower an older person to make the most out of their day and to enjoy it, supporting them with short- or long-term health needs, or even easing the way for someone as they are about to reach the end of their life. Caring for others is a huge privilege

At the end of each of your shifts, you’ll be able to head home with the knowledge and satisfaction that you have made a real difference to the quality-of-life residents. The care you provide to elderly people on a daily basis will be values, appreciated and vital to sustaining their quality of life.

If you want to be apart of our Secure Family click the link below to register:
https://securehealthcaresolutions.co.uk/candidate-registration/

Why Work at Secure Healthcare?

At Secure Healthcare, we are an ever-growing company that provides care and staff built on people. We strive to provide the best quality care and support to individuals across the Midlands and Staffordshire. Every member of our team is a valuable part in our journey to ensure that we achieve this together. We are committed to doing everything we can to help you realise your potential.

The identifying potential is the heart of everything we do. We believe that healthcare workers have the potential to achieve. At Secure you are in the right place, by providing the right support, training and development and career planning, there is potential to progress your career with us.

Within the company, if you are invested and committed, the support is there to make you progress your career with us.

Here at Secure, alongside telling individuals that we value them. We work closely with our staff to ensure they have a clear progression path, with a personalised learning plan to allow our staff achieve their next goal and these plans are constantly updated.

How does Secure Healthcare Solutions support work/life balance?
Our healthcare staff at Secure love their work, and we understand that everyone have their own lives too, Everyone, has their own commitments, such as children care, interests and hobbies and challenges occurring in society. Secure healthcare supports a flexible way to make this happen to create a work life balance. We want individuals to feel comfortable and happy in their personal life and at work.

Staff progression within the company
Here at Secure, over 70% of staff have been promoted internally, we are always providing opportunities with the company. There are always opportunities to get to your next step, whether it is a healthcare role or a role within the office, we are here to support you all the way.

How does Secure reward Staff?
Here at Secure healthcare, we offer competitive salaries to all our staff and pick up a lot of extra shifts to increase annual earnings. We offer flexible working hours to our staff to allow them have a good work life balance, so they can do the things they enjoy. We also have referral schemes, for healthcare staff referred, this allows you to increase your annual earnings.

Training opportunities at Secure Healthcare Solutions
Here at Secure, we heavily invest in training for our staff. We have a clinical team that provides healthcare training and soft skill development to ensure that you are up to date with training, to ensure quality care and support is provided. For example, you may start your journey as a domiciliary carer which requires no care experience, you would just need to be passionate about providing care and progress your career to become a complex carer through training and qualifications that we are able to provided you.

We are a nursing agency in Wolverhampton and we have many healthcare jobs across the Midlands and Staffordshire, offering flexible shifts to suit your availability and we offer high rates of pay. If you are seeking to secure a role within the healthcare industry, then check out our domiciliary roles, HCA, Complex carers and nurse roles local to you within the West Midlands and Staffordshire, using our job search tool or contact us on 0121 285 9449 to find out more. Pick up as many shifts as you want and choose shifts around your availability.

How a young person can start their career in care

Statistics reported by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) outline that young people aged 18-34 are most likely to apply to a care job, 64% and over half the people this age are open to changing their jobs to start a career in adult social care. At Secure Healthcare we understand that young individuals do not have any experience at a young age, which is why we have opportunities for individuals to start their careers with no experience.

For a healthcare role you have to be passionate about providing care and at times it can be very challenging, there may be problems that you have to solve at times.

A care job is varied, every day is fairly different and it involves you being on your feet a lot, compared to an office job which is very desk based. A career in care is about making a difference to people’s lives and there are opportunities to progress.

For an individual that has no experience, and if you are passionate about providing care, then starting your career as domiciliary carer is the best option.

Domiciliary care is when a carer visits the service user’s home to provide care and support in the comfort of their own home. With home care it may be for short periods of time, from one-two hours, several hours or 24-hour care. Providing home care services allows individuals to feel independent to allow them to live a quality life.

For a domiciliary carer, some of the day-to-day responsibilities include:
– Providing personal care such as washing and dressing
– Supporting patients to get in and out of bed
– Assistance with going to the toilet
– Help with preparing with daily meals
– Communicating with service users to provide the patient company
– Assisting with household tasks
– Aid with helping patients get around the house

(A domiciliary care role requires access to a vehicle)

A domiciliary care role is a great way to start your healthcare journey and it can open up an opportunity to become a care manager, alongside the experience, you will require an RMA qualification, NVQ 4, or QCF diploma. Click here to find out more.

If you are young individual that has 6 months care experience, but are seeking new opportunities, then a healthcare assistant could be the role that you are looking for.

When you have gained domiciliary experience and through our internal training and further qualifications, you have the opportunity to become a healthcare assistant, which is when care is generally provided more in care homes. When progressing to healthcare assistant roles, there is opportunities to become a complex carer within a home care setting or within a care home, through our internal training and development opportunities.

As a young individual, if you are seeking to start your journey within health care, then check out our domiciliary roles and HCA roles local to you within the West Midlands and Staffordshire, using our job search tool or contact us on 0121 285 9449 to find out more. Pick up as many shifts as you want and choose shifts around your availability.

Supporting young adults: what you need to know

As a young adult, you may require some extra support and assistance, while living more independently or it may be that your child is moving from children’s social care to adult’s social care.

We are here to support you or your loved ones and provide care to young adults that require it, whether this is required for a few hours, a few times a week, or full time, we are here to support you. We ensure independence and allow young adults to live an active life.

At Secure Healthcare, we understand that individuals requiring help or support for a loved one, can heavily affect your emotions.

Initially, individuals may feel anxious and nervous or could feel excited and overwhelmed. Overall, it is to improve the quality of life for an individual and it allows you to live a more independent life.

If yourself or your loved one is an adult, seeking support, there is many things that you can do to make life easier. Our healthcare team can support and provide care by assisting with day-to-day tasks, support with arranging appointments, assist with providing medication, support with shopping etc.

Every young individual deserves the chance to achieve their highest potential, which is why we offer short term and long-term care for young adults with complex care needs. We want to make sure that young adults have the opportunity to identify their goals and to feel fully supported every step of the way by our experienced healthcare team.

We know that letting someone new into your home can be a difficult decision and we understand that individual’s needs are going to be different. At Secure Healthcare, we have a person-centred approach which means that our case managers assess individual needs of our service users to find the correct amount of support and care.

There are various conditions that we provide support for:
– Acquired brain injury
– Spinal cord injuries
– Palliative care
– ADHD
– Down syndrome
– Cerebral palsy
– Neurological conditions (MS & MND)
– Stroke & Hypertension
– Parkinson’s & Huntington’s
– catheter, bowel & stoma care
– Tracheostomy care
– Gastronomy care
– Ventilated patients
– Continence care
– PEG feeding

Our healthcare team are all DBS checked, receive specialist training and have qualifications to ensure the best quality care and support is provided. Our specialist care services are regulated by the care quality commission. We ensure our team receive up to date training and are fully qualified.

When supporting young adults, there is two ways that we can provide care and support. This can be provided in a home care environment or within a care home setting.

Providing care in a personal home care setting has become very popular within society and it allows individuals to be close to their loved ones, around familiar surroundings. Another benefit of home care is that healthcare provided is more flexible, for example it could be provided for a few hours a day or a few times a week. The cost of this care is much lower compared to care within a care home. Home care also allows healthcare teams to build a stronger relationship with individual patients.

In a care home setting, care is generally more full time with individuals that have more serious healthcare conditions. Care in a care home setting is more routine based and you can not be around your loved ones as much.

Whether you require care for yourself or your loved ones within a home care environment or within a care home, find out more about our services by clicking here or contact us on 01902 302017

A Day In the life of a Complex Carer

Complex carers are a very important part of the front-line team to ensure quality care and support is provided to those that require it. Providing care and support to our service users requires a lot of hard work and is one of the most difficult occupations. We highly appreciate those that dedicate their lives to helping others.

Kabriya is one of our star complex care workers, who has been providing care for over 10 years. She started her journey as a Domiciliary carer in Wolverhampton and through training and development at Secure Healthcare has progressed her career to become a complex carer. Below in summary Kabriya will be outlining the day in the life of a carer.

By working as a complex carer, within a homecare environment, every day is different and it is more than just a job. You have to be passionate about providing healthcare, you need to be a hard willing worker. For me it is about building strong relationships with the service users and feeling part of a new family. I strive to make a real positive difference to our service users lives, every single day.

Being a complex carer, requires a strong character, you have to remain professional and positive, even though you may be experiencing personal issues. This is the life of a carer.

You may be required to provide care and support during the day or nights. While providing homecare for an individual there will be day to day responsibilities such as supporting service users with baths and showers, dressing, assisting with food, medications, housework movement around the house and much more. There are new challenges that can arise while providing care and support and it is important
that you handle this in a calm and safe manner.

Throughout my job I have to assess the needs of our service users to ensure tailored quality personal home care is provided.

Listening to people is important, it is vital that I communicate with service users, family members of those that I am providing care for and also with healthcare professionals to ensure that quality care and support is provided.

With the Covid 19 pandemic, it is also important that I use appropriate PPE to protect myself and others from Covid 19. This is done by wearing gloves, aprons, using face masks and disinfecting surfaces when necessary.

It is important that you follow care plans devised, by collaboratively working with case managers to ensure that tailored care and support is provided. It is also important to document everything, so care plans can be adjusted.

I would say that individuals should be passionate about providing care, hardworking and need to have a strong character.

Looking at Kabriya’s experience of working with us as a healthcare worker, if you think that providing care is for you, then feel free to check out the latest opportunities we have available in the West Midlands & Staffordshire and the North, click here to use job search tool to discover roles local to you or contact us on 0121 285 9449 to find out more.

COVID 19 Vaccine Summary within the healthcare environment

There is over 40 million people that have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the UK. Approximately 27 million people have received both doses to provide maximum protection and here at Secure Healthcare Solutions we highly encourage individuals to come forward to be vaccinated to help protect against the threat of the new variants.

Public Health England outlines that 2 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are highly effective against the (Delta) variant, identified in India. This reduces the risk of hospitalisation and death, which prevents the NHS hospitals being overwhelmed and to prevent another lockdown occurring in the UK.

PHE research carried out shows that individuals that received a single dose of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have an 80% lower risk of death, and the second dose provides 85 to 90% protection against COVID-19. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides 80% protection after one dose and 97% after 2 doses.

The UK is one of the leading nations to have vaccinated the population. Over 60% of the population has been vaccinated.
Click here to find out more about the COVID 19 vaccine.

Secure Healthcare Solutions is in the healthcare industry and is a healthcare staffing agency providing quality care and support to service users within care homes, hospitals and for homecare. Our staff members get priority to receive the COVID 19 vaccine and our patients that we care and provide support for have had the priority to receive the COVID 19 vaccine. As the people that we provide care for in the vulnerable category, we highly encourage individuals to take the vaccine.

We provide our service users PPE, including gloves, face masks and sanitiser. Our staff are also provided this too and appropriate PPE clothing to ensure our service users feel comfortable and safe. As a healthcare agency, safety is imperative for us when it comes to COVID 19 and we ensure that we follow all the government guidelines.

Our healthcare staff and patients are regularly tested for COVID 19 through rapid lateral flow home tests kits.

Here at Secure Healthcare Solutions, we understand that there is a lot of negative rumours about the vaccine, whether it is safe and the long-term side effects of the vaccine.

Who should not receive not receive the vaccine?
– Pregnant women
– Children under 16 (Moderna)
– Children under 18 (Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine & Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine)
– History of allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to ingredients in the vaccine, if you unsure about this, before being vaccinated, ask members of staff.

Side effects of having the COVID-19 vaccine
There are many side effects of taking the COVID 19 vaccine, that are generally mild and should not last longer than a week.
These include:
– A sore arm, where the needle has been put in
– Fatigue
– Headaches
– Body aches
– Feeling or being sick

If you have any of the symptoms above, it is recommended to take paracetamols

If you want to find out more about how we support our service users and also how we support our staff with COVID 19 to ensure safety and individuals feeling comfortable, then please feel free to call us on 0121 285 9449. We highly encourage all our staff and service users to take the COVID 19 vaccine.

How to stay cool in the summer as a healthcare worker and ensuring service users are comfortable during the summer.

Working in the summer as a healthcare worker for a healthcare agency can be difficult because of the warm weather conditions. It is important that you stay cool and cool yourself down to prevent exhaustion.
Warm weather can cause health risks. It is vital that you identify the signs if someone is struggling in the warm weather and what you should do to protect yourself and service users from the heat.
There are various symptoms that individuals can experience in heat. These include:
* Heat stroke, which is life threatening illness in which the body temperature may be above (41 °C) within a short a short period of time.
* Heat cramps, muscle pains or spasms that occur during heavy exercise. Generally, you get these in your abdomen, arms and legs.
* Difficulty breathing and increased heart rate
* Dehydration, nausea or vomiting
* Difficulty sleeping, drowsiness, faintness and changes in behaviour
* Heat can affect the heart and respiratory system

Secure Healthcare’s tips to keep your body temperature down
Take regular showers and baths
We highly encourage you to take regular cool showers or baths. If you are providing home care for an individual, it may require you to assist an individual with a shower or bath. Even though it can be difficult during a warm period, it is important that patients regularly have a bath.

Drink regularly
While providing personal home care to an individual during the warm weather, one the most important things is to stay hydrated, particularly by drinking water and juice regularly. On average you are supposed to drink 2 litres of water a day, however during the warm weather we encourage you increase this intake. If you are providing care for an individual, you should monitor their daily fluid intake to ensure service users are hydrated.

Wear comfortable clothing
For our live-in carers, it is advised to wear clothing that is appropriate for warm weather conditions. This could be by wearing loose clothing which helps individuals feel comfortable. Here at Secure Healthcare Solutions, we provide our employees short sleeve tops and clothing appropriate for warm weather conditions. When providing care to patients it is important that they are dressed appropriately and feel comfortable, particularly during the warm weather.

Eat cold foods
During the warm weather, we encourage you to eat cold food, as opposed to hot food, eating food with high water content will also keep you hydrated, eating healthy foods such as fruits and salads contributes to a large amount of water to your diet.

Stay in the shade
When it is really hot, stay in the shade as much as possible to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion, it is recommended to stay in the shade as much as you can. Although sun is the best way to receive vitamin D, it is important to wear sunglasses and sun cream when outdoors to protect you from the sun.

Ventilated room
The room should be ventilated to ensure there is fresh air coming into the house. This is generally done by opening windows within the property. You could also use fans and air conditioning to ensure yourself or somebody you provide care for feel comfortable.

As a healthcare company, it is important that our staff and service users feel comfortable during the warm weather. Our staff have been professionally trained to deal with individuals in the warm weather.

Contact us on 0121 285 9449 or email us on homecare@securehealthcaresolutions to see how we can support you as staff or provide home care for your loved ones during the warm weather.

Complex Care within a Home Environment

There is approximately around 15 million people in the UK that have Complex care needs, meaning that they require long term healthcare.

What is Complex Care?
Complex care is a person-centred specialist support service for individuals that have a long-term condition, which could be due to a chronic illness, disability or when discharged from a hospital for care or treatment. At Secure Healthcare Solutions, we understand that every client’s needs and requirements are unique, therefore it is important that we provide tailored care and support to accommodate these needs.

Complex care can be provided within a care home or nursing home setting or within a Homecare setting which is becoming more popular, so individuals are close to their loved ones and are used to their surroundings, care can also be provided in the individual’s own home.

NHS funding for Complex Care
Some individuals with long-term complex health needs qualify for FREE social care arranged and funded solely by the NHS, known as NHS continuing healthcare.
NHS
Individuals requiring complex care will be assessed by a team of healthcare professionals to assess care needs.

Find out more about Complex Care funding by clicking here

Complex care needs managed in a home environment
With technology advancing and if patients are in a reasonable stable condition, it allows individuals to receive homecare within a home environment, close to their loved ones. Care will be provided by, complex carers, who have been specifically trained to deal with the individual needs. Case managers and support workers will work closely with healthcare staff to improve care plans and ensure social support is provided.

Live-in care
Around-the-clock support to individuals in your own home, so that care can be provided whenever you require it. The benefit of a live-in carer is that they will understand complex care needs of individuals and get to know routines. For example, individuals that have had a tracheostomy procedure and require ventilator care are likely to need around the clock care.

Visiting Care
This is when homecare is required on an hourly basis, which allows the individual that requires complex care, choose when and how you need support. This gives the flexibility for carers to pop in once or twice a week or for a few hours a day to provide care and support. This could be to prepare meals, help with housework, assist with washing and dressing and for companionship.

Respite Care
Respite care is delivered on a short-term basis, as an individual’s loved ones may be busy with other commitments, or could be on holiday, and if the individual has come home from hospital, you may require extra support to help your loved ones recover.

Individuals with a long-term illness or injury will benefit from Complex Care to accommodate towards their individual needs. We have a team of clinical Nurses with years of medical expertise and experience who work collaboratively with case managers to ensure the right level of care is in place in the comfort of your own home.

Complex Care Conditions
– Acquired brain Injury
– Spinal cord injuries
– Renal care
– Palliative care
– Cerebral palsy
– Neurological conditions (MS & MND)
– Stroke & hypertension
– Parkinson’s and Huntington’s
– Diabetes care
– Catheter, bowel & stoma care
– Tracheostomy care
– Gastronomy care
– Ventilated patients
– Continence care
– PEG feeding
– Tracheostomy care

If you are seeking Complex Care for yourself or loved one, find out more about our complex care services by clicking here and contact our homecare team on 01902 302017