The Story Behind the Nurse, Annapurna’s Journey at Hatherleigh Nursing Home

During International Nurses Week, there’s a common focus on recognising the role of nurses, the responsibility they carry, the decisions they make, and the impact they can have on people’s lives. Behind that are individual stories shaped over time by personal journeys, experiences, support, and the reasons someone chose to care in the first place. This is Registered Nurse Annapurna Thirmalreddy’s story at Hatherleigh Nursing Home.

From a young age, Annapurna was told by her mother “Be brave, stand on your own feet, and learn all types of work”. This advice stayed with her, and when the time came to choose a career, nursing felt like the right path, offering both stability and a sense of purpose.

Annapurna completed her General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) training in 2005 at St. Ann’s Nursing School in India. With a hospital on site, she gained experience across different departments, building the foundations of her practice early on. “They taught me to be diligent and hardworking” she shared, and this is something she has carried with her ever since.

This year for International Nurses Week, the theme is “Empowered Nurses Save Lives”, we asked Annapurna “What does feeling empowered in your role mean to you personally?”

She shared, “Feeling empowered has given me the responsibility to care for, and sometimes even save the lives of those in my care. It’s made me feel stronger and more confident in my professional life.”

This sense of confidence has been built over time, supported by the care community around her. Annapurna describes Hatherleigh Nursing Home as somewhere she has been able to grow, both personally and professionally. The Devon nursing home provides continuous training for team members, offering opportunities to develop and progress in their careers through their Evolve Care Academy.

“Hatherleigh Nursing Home feels like my own home,” she said. “The whole leadership team, including Tamsin, Ashley, Elena, and the QA team who are available day to day are supportive and approachable. I am especially happy and proud to have Ashley as our Home Manager. She is kind, compassionate, and understands everyone’s needs, always offering support.”

However when Annapurna first arrived in the UK, things felt uncertain. “I didn’t know anyone and was struggling to find a place to live and a job for my husband,” she explained. “There were days when I thought about going back to India, but Ashley supported us through that time. She helped my husband find work as a care assistant, and we were able to settle into a nice flat.”

Annapurna was supported to complete her Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and gained her Nursing and Midwifery Council registration (NMC pin), making her a registered nurse in the UK.

Reflecting on that period, she added, “Ashley has played a big part in helping me become the nurse I am today.”

Her experience shows how encouragement can shape not only a nurse’s confidence, but the care they give to others. With the right support around her, Annapurna and her husband were able to build a life in the UK, both now with their own careers and settled into their own home.

Through her role at Hatherleigh Nursing Home, she now supports family members (residents) each day through clinical care, reassurance and advocacy, often acting as a calm and trusted presence during difficult moments.

“Nurses are often the voices for the people we support. We should treat them as though they were our own family” she shared, “Kindness, compassion and empathy are at the heart of nursing.”

We asked Annapurna what advice she would give to somebody starting their nursing career today.

“Be ready to learn, learn from your mistakes and just be happy”.

During this International Nurses Week, Annapurna’s story is a reminder that when nurses feel supported and empowered, that confidence reaches far beyond the individual themselves. It shapes the care, reassurance and advocacy they provide to people and families every single day.

If you would like to learn more about Hatherleigh Nursing Home, visit: https://www.hatherleighnursinghome.com/join-our-team/

International Nurses Week: Care Rooted in Compassion

Nursing is often spoken about as one profession, but the day-to-day reality can look very different depending on where a nurse works, who they support and the kind of care being given. While some nurses work in fast-paced hospital environments focused mainly on treatment and recovery, nursing within social care can offer more opportunity to build long-term relationships and support people not just physically, but emotionally and socially too.

As part of International Nurses Week, we spoke to Lucy Hernaman, a social care nurse at Heanton Nursing Home in North Devon. Reflecting on her experiences supporting people living with dementia and complex needs, Lucy shared how working in social care changed her understanding of compassionate nursing and the importance of truly knowing the people you care for.

Lucy, who joined Heanton in 2021, spoke about how different the home felt compared to more traditional and institutional care settings she had previously experienced.

“Heanton is about as far from institutionalised as it could possibly be,” she said. “I wish more nurses had the opportunity to experience placements in homes like this during their training.”

Lucy explained that one of the biggest things she learned was the importance of understanding the emotional and social needs behind a person’s behaviour, rather than simply reacting to the behaviour itself.

“When I first started at Heanton I had very little dementia knowledge,” she said. “I soon found that people behaved a certain way for many different reasons and that it was important to identify those reasons, especially when someone may not have the capacity to tell us themselves.”

She also spoke about the home’s flexible approach to care and supporting people to continue living life in a way that feels natural to them.

“In some places I had worked before, people were expected to fit into the home’s schedule,” Lucy said. “At Heanton, family members are supported to live as they wish. There is no strict routine, and people aren’t made to fit into a mould.”

Lucy described the home’s approach to medication as another area that stood out to her, explaining that understanding distress and recognising early signs of discomfort could often help avoid situations escalating.

“I love Heanton’s stance towards medication and that it is always used as a last resort,” she said. “Far more work and skill goes into meeting a person’s needs than simply managing the after-effects of an incident.”

Speaking about what matters most to her as a nurse, Lucy said human connection remained at the heart of good care.

“The thing I most love about my job is that I am allowed to love the family members as if they were my own family,” she said. “Sometimes that human connection is what makes a person’s day. The people we look after are our equals and this is how we should care for them.”

To read the whole story:  International Nurses Week: Care Rooted in Compassion - Heanton Nursing Home

International Nurses Day. Social Care Nursing: Bringing Humanity to Care

In the NHS, nurses are often faced with the overwhelming task of looking after the physical needs of a large number of patients at once. Unfortunately, this means they sometimes are not gifted the time to be able to provide the same level of individualised care that meets their emotional needs. This can lead to sedation being used to manage difficult situations, however, in social care, nurses are encouraged to take a more holistic approach in a more natural environment.

Today is International Nurses Day and we spoke with Lucy Hernaman, one of our Social Care Nurses at Heanton Nursing Home in Devon which is a part of Evolve Care Group. Lucy speaks from experience and teaches us how a nursing career in the care sector gives nurses the time and opportunity to deliver care steeped in compassion.

Putting an End to Institutionalised Care

I would love to see Nurses that have only worked within the NHS having placements in care homes like Heanton. What an education it would be, that they could take forwards into their careers with them. I know I wish I had been offered a placement like Heanton when I trained 15 years ago. I did have a caring background, but it was in a home located locally to me that was very institutionalised. Heanton is about as far from institutionalised as it could possibly be.

This is because Evolve Care Group have created their own model of care, which is probably the most holistic approach I have seen in my 20 years working in the care sector. Sadly, I feel that the NHS is behind the times with how we look after “at risk” people. The NHS are good at fixing a physical condition, but they have stayed with the same principles for decades and people just aren’t trained in how to look after someone with a Dementia. Evolve wants to change this and are challenging the status quo.

The Importance of Meeting Emotional and Social Needs in Dementia Care

When I first started at Heanton I had very little Dementia knowledge. I had worked in a home which had Dementia floors but I had not been taught to really stop and consider the person. I can think of so many incidents that involved people I have looked after before I came to Heanton where we never stopped to look at their behaviour and consider why they were behaving that way, it makes me quite sad. This is why the right education is so important in social care.

As a nurse at Heanton, I have been given so much more time to observe people and their behaviours. I soon found here that a person behaved a certain way for so many reasons, and that it was important to identify those reasons as people often don’t have the capacity to tell us themselves. This in turn has led to our residents, who we call family members, being able to live fulfilling lives without judgement or ridicule, and sometimes people have been turned away from other care settings due to being “too complex”, however will go on to lead fulfilling lives here with us.

Breaking the Mould of Social Care

In some homes I have worked in, people have been expected to fall into the homes schedule. For example, be up by a certain time, have breakfast, lunch, dinner and be in bed by a certain time. Heanton works the way it does because we allow our family members to live their lives as they wish. There is no strict routine here and they aren’t made to fit into a mould like many other homes I have worked in.

The fact that Evolve are prepared to break the normal mould of care is a big plus for me. Not everyone fits into the normal care home narrative. I know I certainly wouldn’t if it were me coming to live in a care home. If the team have a reason for going against the grain and can show why and how, then with risk assessments Evolve will support it.

Care without Sedation

I love Evolve’s stance towards medications and that it is always used as a last resort only. I also love that we NEVER restrain or “safe hold” a person as I have seen in previous jobs which created such a negative perception towards the team. Some of our family members have had hospital admissions and have been deemed difficult, physically aggressive and verbally aggressive. As a result, they are given sedation and are watched 24/7 by security services who are neither appropriate for this role or trained in mental health conditions. They will often make the situation worse and so it goes on.

I know there are perhaps times when restraint techniques might need to be used in order to keep someone safe, but in my two years at Heanton I have never once seen restraint used on a family member. It is very much our ethos to find out why an expression of behaviour occurred and to minimise the chances of them escalating rather than act once it has already happened. That isn’t to say that accidents and incidents don’t happen, they do, but our team are trained to understand why they happen so that in the future we can prevent them.

We have a team that have been given time to learn about each person, who can recognise risks so that these can be avoided in such a way that the family member isn’t even aware that they are being distracted from a situation. Sadly, this often creates a rod for our own backs, because in other homes and in funding worlds it is often called ‘a met need’. But what funders don’t realise is that far more work and skill goes into meeting that persons need than simply mopping up the after effects of an incident.

A Human Approach to Care

Overall, the thing I most love about my job is that I am allowed to love the family members as if they were my own family. Every job I have ever had has always called those we look after ‘residents’, ‘service users’, ‘patients’, such horrible titles, so impersonal and uncared for. It’s also so taboo to hug and kiss those we look after, “keep it professional”, but that is so old fashioned and is often what makes a person’s day. The people we look after are our equals and this is how we should care for them.

Evolve want to change the whole future of care, make it better and allow people to be better understood on a basic level. Every day I go home feeling as though my job and my life has been worth it because I have made someone feel loved and cared for and not just on a ‘social care’ level but on a psychological and emotional level.