My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 45

The Big Move
The morning of 18th February 2017 was like any other and yet there was something
different about it. As the staff upstairs zipped about making sure residents made
their way down orderly, the dining hall was abuzz with excitement, anticipation,
relief...the two-and-a-half year wait for the old home in Jurong West to be
redeveloped was finally over and we are about to bid farewell to the temporary
dwelling in Mandai. We trace the journey leading up to the Big Move.
August 2016
6 months
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What does it take to move 140 residents and 60
staff to a bigger home? Staff training is top priority
says Assistant Director of Nursing Sr Gillian Beins. “We
needed to prepare the staff, not only physically but
mentally so that they have the right frame of mind to
work as a team and collaborate with other departments.
We also did a lot of training with them. Now we have 139
residents. When we move back, at full capacity, we will
have 412 residents over 5 levels. Each level is like one
nursing home so a lot changes need to be made.”
Training the staff to handle new equipment like the
residents’ beds was another item top of their to-do list.
Unlike the current hospital-like beds, the new ones
are wooden and closer to those one would find in a
real home than an institution. But they are not short on
safety and other features as senior nurse manager Sr
Janigi Mohan explains “The cotside rails are divided
into 2 sections so one can choose to lower either side
rather than the entire length. This keeps residents safe
yet allows a certain degree of freedom - they can still sit
upright and dangle their legs over the side of the bed.
The beds can also be lowered almost all the way to the
ground so that if residents fall, the impact is minimised.”
Several bed user training sessions were arranged
for all staff with a representative from the German
manufacturer coming in to demonstrate how the lean,
mean machines worked. The staff sat, lay, lifted, pressed
and pulled at the various parts to get a better feel of
it and Healthcare Assistant GK Sri Soniya says “This
bed is so much more convenient to push in and pull
out as it’s much lighter compared to the old beds. 1.7x
metre-tall Nursing aide Hortillosa Joylyn Sazon likes the
extendable feature of the bed the most “All the better for
residents who are of the same height as me or taller”
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