Belong Atherton Nurse crowned winner at the Great North West Care Awards

Belong Atherton lead nurse, Nicola Johnstone, has been crowned winner of the ‘Palliative Care Award’ at the Great North West Care Awards and now will go forward to the national finals of the Great British Care Awards. The awards seek to recognise and celebrate people who provide excellent care to older people.
Nicola has previously received recognition for her work, winning two awards in the recent 'Hospice in your Care Home Awards', run by Wigan and Leigh Hospice.
Earlier this year, she also led the village to achieve the Gold Standard Framework for care at end-of-life, for which Belong Atherton received a rating of ‘Commended’ for its outstanding approach. She supports household staff and families to sensitively discuss difficult, but necessary end-of-life decisions, and leads her team in providing emotional as well as practical support.
Nicola is highly regarded by local professionals, including GPs, hospice professionals and the team at Wigan Infirmary. She works alongside multidisciplinary teams to improve palliative care in the care home setting and reduce the number of unsafe hospital discharges.
Julie Washington, General Manager at Belong Atherton, said: "The dedication and hard work of staff at Belong Atherton enables us to offer exceptional levels of care to our customers. I am not surprised that Nicola has won this award and is now a national finalist in the Great British Care Awards. We wish her the best of luck in the final stage of the competition!”
The award winners will be announced at a gala dinner in April 2017, after attending the final round of interviews.

Nicola (3rd from left) is pictured with her colleagues at the awards event.