A NEW management team has been welcomed to Blenheim House Care Home with the vision of improving standards for residents as well as becoming more involved with the local community.
The new manager, Rhonda Herring, alongside deputy manager, Mirko Ridolfo bring to Blenheim an extensive care background, with both achieving BA honours degrees in nursing prior to working in care homes.
They are welcomed to Blenheim after working with inadequate care homes in other counties and transforming them to ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ as rated by the Care Commissioning Group and are excited for what the future will bring to Blenheim.
New manager Rhonda Herring, who has spent most of her career as a project manager before deciding to pursue a career in nursing said, “I am absolutely delighted to be offered the opportunity to come and join the team here are Blenheim. I actually attended Blenheim House’s very first opening day back in 2014 – and as soon as I walked into this home, I just had such a love for it.”
Rhonda joined Majesticare after a short while working as an on-floor nurse, working at her first care home ‘The Mount’ in Berkshire. She then grew to larger care homes, improving their standards along the way. Due to personal reasons, Rhonda left Majesticare to take a 6-month break to look after her sick mother, later returning to a post-operative clinic as an interim manager to help train the management team and directors. However, she received a call from Majesticare inviting her to work at Blenheim.
“I have always had a love for Wiltshire, I think it is a beautiful area,” Rhonda continued, “we’ve got some fabulous people living here at the home, some lovely residents and some very pleasant families that I’ve met so far. I’ve always had a love for Blenheim and was always keen to work here to help establish and build the home, to take it forward.
“The most important thing to me is that I lead as I always have done, which is from the heart. My philosophy of care and my vision for Blenheim House is very simple; that we put the people first.”
Alongside Rhonda, the home welcomes deputy manager Mirko Ridolfo originally from Italy, studying for his BA degree in nursing at a university in Verona, Italy, in 2014. Since then, the attraction of the nursing system and the English language has brought Mirko to work in care homes in the UK, working for Majesticare for just over three years. He first started at The Mount, Berkshire, where he started as a nurse before being promoted to senior nurse, and then deputy manager.
As deputy manager, he achieved an ‘outstanding’ in the responsive category from the Care Commissioning Group. Since then, it was been his wish to move to Blenheim.
“Gaining experience at The Mount was great,” Mirko said, “it was a great opportunity for me to grow professionally and I look to making Blenheim outstanding as well. My decision to move to the UK was down to the nursing system being one of the most developing systems in Europe, or even in the world. I also, before I came, learnt English as I thought without it, I could not communicate with the majority of the world. I only planned to stay here for one year, but three years later I am still here and I am quite enjoying my experience here and I think my move is now a permanent one.”
Rhonda added, “I’m really excited about the future here at Blenheim and I am honoured to have Mirko here by my side. The home has had a little instability in the past, seeing a number of different management teams for various reasons, but we think that the home has a huge amount of potential and it is mine and Mirko’s pledge to stay and move the home forward.”
