Around 70 Colten Care nurses, with a combined 1,206 years of experience, came together for a team conference focused on learning and the continual delivery of clinical care excellence.  

All 21 of the south coast provider’s care homes, including its four dedicated dementia settings, were represented at the Clinical Excellence Day, held at AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.  

Clinical manager Lee Houston said: “I found it humbling to see so many nurses together in one place sharing their commitment to nursing. It was lovely to see them as engaged as they were, taking the opportunity to learn and get together with each other, meeting colleagues across the board. We had a really successful day and are already looking forward to the next one.”

Among the agenda topics requested in advance by those attending were wound care, NMC revalidation, self-help and the requirements of MCA/DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty Standards under the Mental Capacity Act).  

The day represented the restart of an annual series of Clinical Excellence conferences which Colten Care had paused during the Covid pandemic.

Attendees included Verena Thomas, a registered nursing associate at Wellington Grange, Colten Care’s Chichester home, who said: “I enjoyed the conference. It was well organised and really helpful. I have my revalidation coming up so it was great to hear the NMC presenter go over some pointers on that. It was also useful to see colleagues working through the MCA exercise and discuss how we deal with assessing someone for mental capacity. The session on wound training was also a helpful refresher course.”