Jackie Fennell is our home’s new clinical manager. Jackie is a very skilled nurse and manager, gaining valuable experience in a variety of hospital and care home settings before coming to Hampton.
Aberdeen-born Jackie grew up near Canterbury with her salesman father, teacher mother and four sisters. When she was 18, she worked briefly in a residential care home for people with mental health issues and, although she loved the job, she hadn’t yet discovered her nursing vocation. Other roles in different industries followed, along with the births of her two daughters, Maryn and Shayla, now 23 and 22.
It was only when her daughters were a few years old that Jackie decided to go for it and pursue a career in nursing. Initially, she joined the Access to Nursing programme then completed a nursing degree. After qualifying she worked on the acute elderly ward at Kingston Hospital.
Jackie immediately felt at home caring for the elderly. “Every day was different. You never knew what you were going into, and I love that environment. Elderly care really is where my heart is!” she says.
This was confirmed when Jackie decided to widen her horizons and try out the day surgery unit, looking after people having minor surgical procedures. “I found it a bit boring so I moved back to the elderly ward,” she admits.
Jackie stayed at the hospital for several years, rising to become a nursing sister. In 2017 she won a Kingston Hospital Star Super Nurse Award for always going above and beyond while on shift. “The judges said that I took really good care of the patients, and I had some lovely compliments from colleagues. It’s great to work hard and be recognised for doing a good job,” she says. She also won a ticket to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. “I was representing nurses, and it was an incredible experience.”
By the time the pandemic came, Jackie had made the move into working with elderly people as a deputy manager in nursing homes in Westminster and later Surbiton, where she was promoted to home manager. However, when the role here at Hampton came up Jackie jumped at it, partly because it’s so much closer to where she lives.
As clinical manager Jackie is responsible for overseeing the safe delivery of nursing care, and ensuring that the home’s clinical/care performance meets the required standards. She works closely with home manager Justyna Kirihettige Don and administrator Tracey Jansen, and also manages the home in Justyna’s absence.
She very much enjoys working with the residents. “I think it’s easy to forget that elderly people were once just like everyone else. They worked, went out and enjoyed a drink and nice food, they danced and had hobbies. When you talk to people living with dementia, sometimes you’ll get a few snippets from them, a little window into what their life was like when they were young, which is very rewarding!” she says.
Away from work Jackie loves travelling, especially to Thailand, with partner Steve and going to concerts with daughter Shayla to see artists as diverse as Andrea Bocelli, Take That and The Rolling Stones. Also at home is her cat, Bea, and Jackie would dearly like to adopt a duck, but gardening whizz Steve is not keen! As part of her busy life, Jackie regularly sees her father, sisters and 11 nieces and nephews, who live mostly in Yorkshire, and she visits other close family in Scotland, too.
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