Alexandra Mateiciuc joined the Parkfield nursing team in February this year and has recently been promoted to acting clinical manager while Iulia Balanici is on maternity leave.

Alexandra was born and grew up in Bucovina, in north-east Romania, with her brother and sister.

After finishing college (where she enjoyed learning languages including English, French and German), Alexandra studied management for two years. She then went to Nursing School in Iasi to train as a nurse.

Alexandra had already met future husband Catalin, also a registered nurse, back in Romania. When she came to the UK nearly eight years ago the couple married and had daughter Sophie Kate. They then moved back to Romania for a couple of years and Alexandra worked as a nurse in a hospital in Iasi. She was interested in a career in care, having looked after her mother and knowing how it was to be dependent on others. But there are few nursing homes in Romania, as most elderly people are taken care of by family.

After moving back to the UK with Catalin and Sophie Kate, Alexandra worked in a dementia unit at a care home in Southall and then applied to work at Parkfield.

In the acting clinical manager role, Alexandra spends two days on the floor with the staff and residents where she “leads by example” and also “learns something new every day”. She spends the rest of her time supporting home manager Wendy Bristow and dealing with documentation – audits, care planning, accidents/falls, safety checklists and funding – as well as pre-assessments, liaising with families and in clinical meetings.

“I want to do something challenging and make a difference to residents’ lives and make them smile. I also believe in involving families as much as possible in all the assessments, the moving-in process and then afterwards, when their relatives are living in the home,” she says.

Alexandra is focused on maintaining a healthy work-life balance so outside work she spends time with her daughter and her husband. She likes to read and is trying to instill the love of reading in her daughter.