Carers qualify as nurses through Pendine Park scheme

Pendine Park, which operates care homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon, delivered the scheme as part of its 'grow your own' nursing initiative.

The newly-qualified nurses completed four-year Bachelor of Science degrees through the Open University while continuing to work at Pendine Park’s care homes, balancing their jobs with university study, community placements, and family commitments.

Mario Kreft MBE, who founded Pendine Park with his wife Gill in 1985, said: "Pendine has always believed in offering our staff opportunities and when the opportunity for this nursing training course came, it was an opportunity too good to be missed.

"We're the only care organisation that does this type of nurse training in North Wales.

"In Wales as a country we have often been remiss in not using the opportunities that exist within the care sector to grow and develop our own qualified nurses.

"Working with the Open University, we have found that opportunity, and I passionately believe this is a route that everybody involved in social care or responsible for it should seriously look at because social care nursing in itself is a speciality."

Mr Kreft said that the scheme recognises the value of those already working in care, and that not everyone will choose the nursing route.

He said: "Of course, becoming a nurse is not the right career path for everybody, and we should never lose sight of the invaluable contribution made by our 500 carers, who are quite simply the backbone of our care homes and the people who make such a difference to the lives of the residents we look after."

Four of the new nurses are based at Pendine Park's Wrexham homes.

One of them, 25-year-old Courteney Jones, works at Bryn Bella and started her career as a teenage "breakfast girl" before becoming a carer at 18.

Ms Jones, who is from Wrexham, said: "I joined Pendine straight from college where I did childcare.

"My mum was working at Pendine as a nurse, and suggested I should give social care a try.

"I started as a breakfast girl, doing breakfasts, doing drinks and joining in with the activities with the residents.

"I then became a carer at 18 and then applied for the nursing course, I was only 19, I think I am the youngest in the group.

"My mum was the inspiration for me to do the nursing and to carry on."

Ms Jones said that balancing work and study was challenging, but Pendine Park was supportive throughout.

She said: "Work was really flexible, and really supportive and worked around my placements, and I just cracked on.

"We had dedicated study days which helped and it was hard work, but really rewarding.

"I think Pendine growing their own nurses is amazing, I admire it a lot."

Pictured Mario Kreft with the newly qualified Wrexham nurses Kirsty Morris, Courteney Jones, Steph Lloyd and Michell Bevan.    (Image: Mandy Jones)

Kirsty Morris, 34, also from Wrexham and based at Pendine's Highfield care home, said that qualifying as a nurse was a lifelong dream.

She said: "I always wanted to be a nurse since I was a child, and it's a huge responsibility but you are impacting on people's lives and making things better.

"What Pendine is doing through the nurse training is great, the fact they want to help people and build a team of nurses is wonderful.

"Care home nursing is a different kind of nursing, and I am proud to be part of it."

The newly-qualified nurses will graduate in October at a ceremony in Manchester.

They join Pendine Park’s team of more than 100 nurses, with several others currently enrolled in the programme.

Celia Jones, clinical development officer at Pendine Park, said: "I am very proud of all the new nurses, they have all worked so hard in their studies.

"I am a nurse and I know how hard it is to become one, so everyone should be very proud of their achievements."

The newly-qualified cohort of nurses includes Sarah Hughes, Rebecca Armstrong, Chris Jones, Andrew Roberts, Kirsty Morris, Courteney Jones, Steph Lloyd and Michell Bevan.