Staff and residents at Barchester’s Wilsmere House Care Home in Harrow Weald, Harrow are over the moon because one of their much-loved nurses, Carina Pereira, has reached the final of the National Care Awards 2024. She has been shortlisted in the prestigious Nurse of the Year category.

Organised by Caring Times magazine, the National Care Awards are designed to celebrate the very best people and companies in the long-term social care sector, highlighting excellence and rewarding those who work tirelessly to provide consistently outstanding care. The awards are now in their 26th year and competition is fierce with each of the categories receiving hundreds of entries. The winners will be announced at a gala evening in the Platinum Suite at Excel, London on Friday 29th November 2024.

Carina joined Barchester in 2013 as a senior care assistant and has worked her way up through the ranks to Unit Manager of the home’s Memory Lane specialist dementia unit. She says she could never see herself doing anything other than nursing, she loves her job and working in a team, she says coming to work each day is always a pleasure.

Carina says: “I was absolutely amazed when I heard I had been short-listed, I had no idea I had been nominated. I feel very humbled to be a finalist and immensely grateful to have been nominated, it is lovely to be recognised for doing the job I love. I guess it means I must be doing something right! It is wonderful that people took the time to nominate me, I’m blown away.”

General Manager of Wilsmere House, Lili Cocue, comments: “We are so proud of Carina, we cannot think of anyone more deserving of the title of Nurse of the Year. She is so committed to our residents, she goes above and beyond every day to ensure they are as happy and as comfortable as possible. She is a force of nature and the heart of our home, everyone loves her, she is so positive, passionate and caring.”