Connections Spring 2026 - Flipbook - Page 9
A Day in the Life of...
an Inpatient
Services
Manager
We recently welcomed a new Manager to our IPU, after bidding farewell
to Caroline Rogers who retired in May. Jackie Spendlowe, our new
Inpatient Services Manager, previously worked on the Oncology and
Haematology wards at Portsmouth Hospital, and at a Palliative Care
Unit in Christchurch, and is enjoying settling into her new role here.
Working on the IPU is really varied – no two
days are the same. I start every day by catching
up with the night staff before they go home,
and then join the morning handover, so I’m upto-date with how our patients and their families
are. After that I’ll walk around the IPU to say
hello to our patients and have a bit of a chat.
I love working alongside our Nurses and Health
Care Assistants; there’s nothing I like more
than helping with the hands-on care. I’ve
always wanted to be a Nurse - from the age
of three! I’m keen to support my team and
ensure they feel valued. Staff always need
their manager’s support, but during Covid,
when many people weren’t able to see friends
and family as much as usual, that support
network was chipped away at, so the support
people receive from their managers and work
colleagues has become even more important.
Covid has been hard on our patients and their
families. The worst thing has been having
to limit patients’ visitors. Patients miss their
families, and families so desperately want to
see their loved ones. We have restrictions
on the number of visitors and length of visits
we can allow, and it’s really sad that relatives
can’t stay overnight at the moment. We would
usually have them here as much as they wanted
to be. Our staff are spending more time with
each patient, to offer some of the emotional
support that patients’ families would
usually provide, and our patients are really
appreciative of that. Things are improving
though. Restrictions are easing, and we’ve been
able to extend our visiting hours a bit. Staff are
able to meet up with friends and family again
too, so have been able to access that emotional
support that we all need.
I’ve settled in to life here really quickly.
Everyone’s made me feel so welcome. It’s a
great place to work – and it’s lovely that I can
see the garden from wherever I am on the
IPU!
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