OSKA is delighted to welcome Nicola Hopkins to its fast-expanding Clinical Team, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience from the Care Home sector.
Qualifying as a Nurse in 1999, Nicola worked in Accident and Emergency and Trauma settings, as well as Forensic Nursing for a short time, before training and qualifying as a Midwife in 2003, where she worked across antenatal, labour ward and community settings.
In 2006 Nicola left the NHS to work in the commercial sector as a Nurse Advisor, completing her Post Compulsory Education and Training (PCET) teaching qualification in 2010. Her true passion lies in education and training to drive improved care quality outcomes for patients and long-term care residents.
Working within the Care Home sector for a number of years in quality, governance and clinical skills training roles, Nicola was instrumental in supporting audits and incident trend analysis to improve care quality, as well as supporting Home Managers during regulatory inspections with the Care Quality Commission, Care Inspectorate, local authorities, and beyond.
During her nursing career, she is proud to have been involved in the development and roll out of the Care Home Assistant Practitioner programme which offers a new career pathway to care assistants to progress and build on their existing skills and knowledge and is a fully recognised progression pathway to a Nurse Associate programme and eventually, Nurse degree programme.
Nicola has also delivered clinical skills training such as venepuncture, catheterisation and pressure ulcer prevention training packages to qualified nurses, as well as supporting internationally trained nurses preparing to complete their Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) programme in order to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and allow them to work here in the UK.
Of her appointment at OSKA, Nicola said,
I have always had a keen professional interest in pressure ulcer prevention and pressure area care. At its heart, education, accurate risk assessment, and selecting the correct pressure relieving equipment has such an important impact on a person’s quality of life and wellbeing so I am very excited to join the OSKA team and be able to support with this aspect of care for those most at risk of pressure ulcers.
Alistair Wickland, Managing Director at OSKA said,
We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Nicola to our fast-expanding Clinical Team. Pressure Ulcer Prevention training is currently not mandatory, but many Care Operators are now choosing to place great emphasis on its importance at grass root level. Investing in pressure ulcer prevention training across the whole clinical team demonstrates a clear priority and commitment to those in our care. Nicola brings extensive knowledge and experience from the care home sector to OSKA and will be instrumental in further strengthening OSKA’s clinical support offering to our care home clients.
To contact Nicola, please email nurse@oska.uk.com or call 02394 318 318.
