Inspired to become a Nurse
Louise Henry was inspired to become a Nurse after seeing the support they gave to her sister who has complex needs.
And given she was also involved in the care of her sibling, Louise always knew she wanted to specialise in children’s nursing.
After gaining her nursing degree at university, this is exactly what she did, working at Sheffield Children’s Hospital where, over five years, she gained extensive experience in all clinical aspects of paediatric care, including tracheostomy, PEG, PEJ, vent, suction, epilepsy and much more.
“I choose children’s nursing mainly because of my experience with my sister but also because I like getting to see each child grow and develop,” she explains.
In 2023, Louise decided to leave hospital nursing and joined Caremark as one of our Clinical Leads.
She adds: “Even when I started my nursing I always knew I wanted to do something more community focused at some point in my career.
“Hospital is great for experience and developing your skills but there it’s more about helping children who are very sick to get better, whereas I liked the idea of being able to help them to get the most out of their life at home.”
Even before joining our team, Louise was no stranger to Caremark, as she explains: “Working in high dependency and intensive care, you would often see the Support Workers from Caremark with the children, so I knew about them and what great work they did.
“I had also worked at the hospital with Charlotte, one of the other Clinical Leads, and became friends with her and I knew she enjoyed being at Caremark so that prompted me to apply as well.”
Louise is one of our three Clinical Leads who are responsible for overseeing clinical training for our staff and ensuring our clients receive high quality person-centred care and support.
“A lot of what we do is training our Support Workers to be able to meet the clinical needs of our clients,” she explains.
“This means they can have their clinical needs met whilst enjoying day-to-day life in the community and doing the things they enjoy the most.”
Another part of the job Louise particularly enjoys is remaining hands-on with our clients.
She says: “When we are training staff we do this with the clients present so, for example, we can demonstrate tracheostomy changes.
“Nearly all of our current tracheostomy clients are people I have met before when I worked in the hospital so it’s lovely to see them again and it provides some nice continuity for them too.
“One of the first patients I ever looked after is one of our clients now, so it’s nice to be able to see how far they have progressed.”
Outside of work, Louise is kept busy caring for her daughter who is approaching her first birthday, so other hobbies have been put on hold, just for now!