Hear from Gaby, Night Nurse Manager at Otterburn
Gaby is the Night Nurse Manager at Otterburn in Birmingham. After being told that social care nursing is just 'popping meds', she's here to bust the common myths about the role.

Nurse, Gaby, stood outside Otterburn care home

When I told my nursing friends I was going to work in a care setting, they said: "You're just going to be popping meds." But I can assure you it's not the case at all.

Since qualifying, I've worked in a range of roles including in A&E, community care and school nursing. But none of them give you that rewarding feeling from spending time with the people you support. 

In many other nursing roles, your aim is to support people to be well enough to be discharged. 

But here, this is their home and you have the time to give them the best care possible. It doesn't just end!

You can build rapport with residents, you can get to know them.

One thing that I really, really love about this place is the fact that there are different specialties of nursing. Working alongside Mental Health Nurses and Learning Disability Nurses, you learn so much from each other. 

Every day, I'm developing my skills and learning something new. 

Here at Otterburn, we provide complex care which is different to most other mainstream care providers. 

There are ten people on each unit, with one Registered Nurse and up to five Care Assistants. 

This is very different to other places I've worked where you can be caring for up to 14 people by yourself. 

What I'd say to others considering social care nursing is, it's not the end of your career. There's a misconception that you're going to become deskilled working in social care, however there's so much training available. 

I'd encourage anyone to apply for a nursing job at Otterburn. It's an amazing place to work.