Meet our Head of Clinical Care, Mihail Gafincu

Why our new Head of Clinical Care chose to work for Lynwood Care Home

With over 30 years’ professional nursing experience, our new Head of Clinical Care, Mihail Gafincu knows good care when he sees it.  We spoke to Mihail to find out more about how the high quality care, superb environment, facilities and staff training at Lynwood drew him to his new role.      We asked him about why he chose to work for Lynwood Care Home.

What made you decide to work at Lynwood Care Home?

“I’m a registered nurse.  I’ve been a nurse for 30 years, first in my home country of Romania as a nurse in A&E and for the last ten years here in the UK. I’ve worked as a nurse in care homes and in hospitals, so I have a huge amount of experience working in different environments. As a charge nurse I was responsible for leading nursing care so I have management and leadership experience as well as clinical skills.  I joined Lynwood Care Home as Head of Clinical Care in the summer of 2023. 

“I decided to come back to working in care homes because I saw the high level of care they were providing to their residents.  Good care is my passion, it’s the purpose of my professional life.   Working in a care home environment allows me, personally, to deliver excellent care and, perhaps more importantly, gives me the opportunity to train other people to deliver great care too, so it’s a win-win!  I’m at the point in my career where I want to pass on my knowledge to other people and working in a care home allows me to do that by training staff to deliver a higher quality of care. 

What do you think makes Lynwood different?

“Lynwood is a great environment for delivering care. What I like about it is how it’s structured into units, or as we call them ‘houses’, of 15 people.  To me it’s the ideal environment to enable us to care for people in a person-centred way and it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to work for Lynwood.  Another thing that attracted me to Lynwood is the Best Lives Model of Care, which allows nursing staff plenty of time with residents, so we can use our clinical skills to the fullest extent.  It means we have enough time to spend with each resident to ensure they are well cared for and that their needs are being met. 

“I also like the fact that Ben is a charity because I know that we’re focused on delivering good care rather than on making money.  The staff here are passionate about care and they have really good relationships with the residents in each house. 

“Another thing I like about Lynwood is the space.   It looks big when you first get here – it is a big building - but I like the fact that there is enough space to do activities, meet with families and visitors as well as to provide care.  It’s also a very homely environment.  When you walk into each house, it’s very relaxed, everyone’s happy, it really is home from home.  Residents tell me that they feel at home here and that they feel safe, which is exactly what you want people to feel when they are living in a care home.

“I think the Best Lives Model will help us deliver an exceptional level of care because we are training our carers to a much higher standard than in many other care homes.  They acquire nursing skills and other training which means the level of care they deliver is truly exceptional.  I believe this model, where nurses deliver their clinical care throughout the care home – not just to people who are in nursing care units – is the future of care and will adopted by other operators when they realise the impact it has on care quality. 

“Lynwood is special because of the way it feels here, it’s got a great atmosphere. It’s also unique in the way it supports the staff, it’s the first time I’ve seen this in a care home; very few organisations offer that level of support.  Staff are listened to, they are supported throughout the ups and downs, and there is always someone there for them to talk to. 

What do you find most rewarding about working in care?

“The most rewarding part of working in care, for me, is when you look into the eyes of a resident and they say ‘thank you’, and you can really feel that you’ve made a difference; you’ve made their day better.  I believe people who work in care do so because they have a big heart, everything else can be learned but you’ll find that people who are drawn to work in care have big hearts and that’s something you can’t teach.”