Our Team

One of our medical team led by Dr. Róisín Purcell (Consultant Geriatrician) welcomes and admits you to the unit.  They will clinically assess your care needs while you are in Anna Gaynor House, providing valuable input into your care plan.

The Department of Nursing is led by the Director of Nursing, AHPs & Quality and endeavours to provide efficient and effective quality nursing care to patients/residents and their families in line with the ethos and mission statement of the Hospice.

Anna Gaynor House nursing team is led by John Lavelle (Operational Lead Older Person Services / Assistant Director of Nursing / Person In Charge).

We embrace continuous quality improvement and the management of change, necessary to achieve our organisational objectives. The Department of Nursing is responsible for developing policy/guidelines in accordance with best practice in partnership with our multidisciplinary colleagues.

Our service is patient focused with an emphasis on providing a clean environment of care, ensuring best practice and improving clinical care standards while treating patients/residents with dignity and respect.

The department aims to enhance and develop nursing practices with the aim of providing a quality service. We promote/facilitate optimum learning environments for all our nurses recognising the increasing specialisation and complexity of the chronic disease model. We seek to empower our nurses to lead innovate and develop change where this will improve the quality, timeliness and safety of patient care.

To achieve this we have a central department of senior nurses who oversee quality and practice.  The team focuses on infection control, haemovigilance, tissue viability, practice development and quality standards.

The site management team of nurses also operate out of the central department to oversee day to day running of nursing and safety issues. All of this is supported by the risk and health records department who work as part of the team.

Our team includes nurses, led by our experienced ward managers, a clinical nurse specialist and health care assistants, with a special interest and expertise in caring for older people. 

The nursing team will provide direct care to residents and support to the family and/or carers.  The team’s aim is to help with the management of any pain and/or any other symptoms that reduce or impair function.

Volunteers are a cheerful supportive group of people who freely give their time, thereby contributing to the smooth running of the Hospice. Not health care professionals in uniform, volunteers wear ordinary clothes and identifying name badges.  Their duties in Anna Gaynor house include:

• Escorting residents to church and x-ray.
• Serving morning and evening refreshments.
• Organising transport requests when required.
• Providing daily support for residents.
• Providing companionship.

The role of the physiotherapist in Anna Gaynor House is to promote the health and well-being of our residents by facilitating them to maintain and maximise their physical abilities. Each resident has an individualised treatment plan, based on a full assessment of his/her needs.

Treatments offered include

• Gym and ward-based exercise sessions.
• Group exercise classes.
• Contracture management.

Our social workers offer counselling and psychosocial support to assist with any social, emotional or practical issues you may have. This may include talking through worries arising from illness, providing information on entitlements or advocating on your behalf.

As well as physical health, we look after our residents’ emotional and mental health. We promote complementary therapies such as massage, reflexology, aromatherapy and other therapies to boost our residents’ physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual wellness.

Clinical pharmacists with a special expertise in our treatments visit our residents to review prescriptions, advise on treatments and support the multidisciplinary team. The pharmacist may check your medicines on admission and discuss them with you to ensure you get the best out of your medicines.

Occupational Therapy Service

 The role of the occupational therapist in Anna Gaynor House is to maximise independence and quality of life for all residents. An individualised assessment is completed with each resident on admission to determine their needs.

Therapeutic interventions include:

• The provision of specialised seating, upper limb splinting and pressure care to enhance comfort and enable residents to participate in everyday activities
• The provision of falls prevention education, environmental adaptations and assistive aids to enable residents to remain as independent as possible in activities of daily living
• Facilitation of a range of 1:1 and group activities including art, baking, reminiscence, ‘Lifestyle Matters’ and gardening (schedule changes based on time of year and preferences of current residents). Residents are offered 1:1 or group activities according to their individual needs and personal choices.
• For residents with cognitive impairment / Dementia we offer cognitive stimulation therapy, 1:1 multi-sensory treatment programmes and provision of assistive aids and education on strategies to enhance memory and communication
• Completion of access / environmental assessments and provision of necessary equipment to enable residents to visit their homes and communities

Our Dietician’s diagnose and treat dietary and nutritional problems for patient’s and resident’s in Anna Gaynor House. Our Dietitians use the most up-to-date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease which they translate into practical guidance to enable our patient’s and resident’s to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.

Our Speech and Language Therapists diagnose and treat patient’s and resident’s with speech, language and communication difficulties. Working with other professionals in multidisciplinary teams, the therapist works closely with residents/patients and their families to establish a treatment programme to help each resident/patient communicate as effectively as possible

The Patient Services team comprises of:

• Admissions office
• Clinical administration support staff
• Medical secretarial staff
• Ward clerks
• Healthcare Records Department

The Patient Services administration team work together to provide an efficient, quality based delivery of the administration function services to patients attending the various clinics, in-patient wards and outpatient units in the Hospice.