Studying The Brochures

Look at the brochures you have received and divide them into three piles:

• instant appeal
• possible
• unsuitable.

 

Remember:

• Photographs can be misleading; rooms may look more spacious than they are in reality.
• Brochures are a commercial advertisement and can only give you limited information.
• Brochures may be out of date. The home may have new proprietors and/or new managers with new ideas.

 

The Size Of The Home

Some people enjoy being in a home caring for a large number of residents. Others prefer to live and be cared for in smaller ones. There are advantages and disadvantages in both cases.

The Larger Nursing Homes

Larger homes have 50 beds or more. It would be difficult and unusual to have this number of beds plus dining rooms, lounges, toilets and bathrooms, etc all on the ground floor. In view of this there may be two, three or possibly more floors depending on the number of elderly residents they care for.

The residents would be taken to their floor by lift. The largest homes may have two lifts. Access to each floor is also provided by stairways.

In some homes, particularly the more modern ones, the floors are complete with a small kitchen area, lounge and dining area, bathrooms, toilets, nurses’ station and treatment room in addition to the bedrooms.

All nursing homes, whether large or small, have communal rooms for the use of residents and their visitors.

Smaller Nursing Homes

Some homes are designed to be a single storey building, depending on the number of residents they have been built to accommodate.

I have worked in a single storey nursing home built to accommodate 30 residents. There were four wings, three having ten single rooms, each with a second door that opened out onto the garden. Each wing had toilets, bathrooms, linen cupboard, storage space, lounge and dining room in addition to the bedrooms. The fourth wing contained laundry room, offices, storage room and a treatment room. The four wings were arranged around an enclosed circular garden where residents could wander or sit and rest if they wished.

The residents made friends with one another reasonably quickly and enjoyed any activities the staff arranged for them, particularly at Christmas.

Although it is perhaps easier for the residents to make new friends in smaller homes, it can be just as easy in the larger homes. They can ask to sit in a particular group with their new friends and join in activities if they wish. It is possible that there will be a wider range of activities in the larger homes because the higher the number of residents the wider the range of interests which need to be catered for.

Room Sizes And Suitability

The modern trend is for nursing and residential care homes to have single rooms only but there are some which have a combination of single and double rooms. Double rooms are often used for married couples but not always. All double rooms should have curtains or a screen to divide the room when one or both residents need privacy.

The size of the rooms varies according to the needs of the kind of residents the home is registered to care for and whether the rooms are to be used as single or double rooms. The Inspecting Officers will advise the home owner if any of the rooms designated as a resident’s room does not conform to the regulations and is therefore unsuitable for that purpose.

Warden controlled flats are variable in size, some are built for single people whilst others cater for married couples.

In new building projects regulations state that rooms must be of a certain size. Nursing home rooms have to be larger than in residential care homes. This is to enable staff to bring hoists, dressing trolleys, special beds or other equipment into the room when necessary.

When large houses are converted into nursing or care homes the rooms are measured and designated for either nursing or residential care. If the proprietor wishes to accommodate both kinds of residents they will need to apply for dual registration which, if granted, will allow them to use the rooms as designated, providing their levels of trained nursing staff and care assistants comply with the regulations.

When making their inspection of the bedrooms Inspectors will take into consideration:

• room size
• decor
• windows
• door size and wheelchair access
• furniture
• safety such as: very hot water from the hot water tap; wrinkled carpets, ruckled linoleum or rugs which could cause a resident to trip, etc
• unshielded radiators
• general suitability.