Monika Bacmaga joined the St Raphael's team at the end of February. Here she tells us a bit more about herself.
I am very happy to have joined the Viewpoint team as St Raphael’s Care Home Manager. This is my first time in this position, so everything is new to me. I am so thankful for being a part of the Viewpoint team and being trusted to uphold its reputation.
I was born in Poland and lived there for three decades, but I always dreamed of living abroad and starting a new life elsewhere. In 2006 I managed to persuade my husband and children to move to the UK and now I am proud to officially be a British citizen. As a child I wanted to be a nurse but as a teenager, I chose a completely different path. After I got married, my husband and I had our own company in Poland. We were successful, but it was not something that I was passionate about as it revolved around my husband’s qualifications. For that reason, I stayed at home looking after our three children while occasionally helping with the business.
While working in England, I started my career by working as a care assistant in a nursing home and a hospital. It was then that I decided to fulfil my childhood dream and complete a nursing degree at university in Poland. It was an extremely busy time for me, and I had to make a lot of sacrifices. I am a very determined person and if I want something, I will work very hard to achieve the end goal. In 2011, after four years of flying back and forth I qualified as an RGN.
As a newly qualified nurse I started my career with Bupa in England and then in Scotland. I worked for Bupa for seven and half years and for nearly six of those years I was the house manager of two dementia units. During this time, I concentrated on improving my units, quality of life of my residents, helping others and developing myself by extending my roles and stepping up to the general manager position during the manager’s absence. In order to gain managerial qualifications, in 2016 I graduated with a Postgraduate Certificate course in Management in Social Services at the University of Stirling.
I always have a very positive attitude towards work and this was recognised by the Scottish Care Home Award in 2017, when my two units were nominated and won the prize for the “Innovative Practice” which I am very proud of.
I am looking forward to this new chapter of my life and I am prepared to work hard to make it successful and enjoyable for myself as well as for those around me.