Karen Davies, Home Manager of HC-One’s Rose Court Care Home, Bury, has been awarded the prestigious Gold Chief Nurse Adult Social Care Award, which recognises Nurses in the UK who go above and beyond to make outstanding contributions in the field.
On 11
th May 2022, Karen was awarded the Gold Chief Nurse Adult Social Care Award in a virtual online awards ceremony presentation by the Department of Health and Social Care’s Chief Nurse, Deborah Sturdy. The award acknowledged the enormous range of skills, expertise and enduring compassion shown by Karen throughout her career. Karen has gone above and beyond in her role every single day to provide exceptional care, inspiration and leadership to others.
First beginning her career in nursing as an Enrolled Nurse in 1984, before qualifying as a Registered Nurse in 1998, Karen has been Registered Manager at Rose Court for an amazing 16 years. Over this time, Karen has built strong and trusted relationships with Residents, their loved ones, Colleagues, and the community which she is at the heart of.
A Registered Nurse Manager’s role is multi-faceted, but in everything Karen does, she always makes sure that she takes the lead from the people she supports, and their wants, needs and wishes. Her passion for advocacy, and her insight, direction, clinical governance and genuine care has created a true culture of kindness at Rose Court, and an environment where people can learn and grow as they pursue their own careers as nurses and carers.
Karen’s work with the Foundation of Nursing Studies Team on Care England’s Teaching care home pilot, and as a representative on the National Advisory Panel means she has positively helped to influence the sector, and the role of Social Care Nurses, both locally to Rose Court and nationally. Karen’s extensive expertise has seen her have articles published in national publications such as the Nursing Times and Nursing Older People Journal, and she is also an honorary lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Commenting on the award win, Karen replied:
I am so happy and grateful for this amazing recognition! It is a huge honour. Being a nurse gives me the opportunity to use my experience, skills and clinical judgement to support people to live their lives their way. It gives me the scope to enable others, to listen to peoples’ ambitions and hopes and with a skilled colleague community, fill in the gaps to enable people to live their best lives. Having the autonomy to develop people to aspire to achieve and be the best leader they can be is a joy. Having developed Colleagues to go on to manage their own care homes, is the ultimate accolade of our home’s culture.
Karen is retiring from her role as a Registered Home Manager on the 20
th May 2022. Her retirement plans include travelling Europe in the summer, attending music festivals and relaxing on remote beaches. On Karen’s return, she is looking forward to getting stuck into Foundation of Nursing Studies’ ‘Creating caring cultures’ residential programme and then continuing to find ways to use her skills and compassion to continue to make an impact in the sector both locally and nationally.
Rachel Bradbury, Interim Managing Director at HC-One, said,
Congratulations to Karen! I am delighted that Karen has been awarded by Deborah the Gold Chief Nursing Officer Adult Social Care Award. This is an amazing achievement, and I am so proud.
“Being presented with this well-respected award is a testament to the dedication of Karen over many years of service and even in the most challenging of times. Karen has truly gone above and beyond to provide the kindest care to Residents living at Rose Court Care Home and support to Colleagues, Relatives and those within the local community, supporting our mission at HC-One to be the first-choice care provider in each of the communities that we serve.