EMILY:
So I started as a domestic when I came to Risedale. I was 16 at the time and worked while I was at college as a domestic. As soon as I was 18, I trained to be a healthcare assistant and I changed to become a healthcare assistant.
Both those roles taught me a lot and as I've progressed right the way through and understanding of the different roles has been great.
I hoped that becoming a nurse would have been a possibility. I always really liked the idea of taking a lead role in healthcare but I had two children and to look after a mortgage to pay. Therefore, I didn't necessarily consider it was a realistic option until the opportunity to study whilst being paid a full wage by Risedale, and being seconded out on my placements became available and that's when and it was a really great prospect.
So, I started initially doing the assistant practitioner qualification through Risedale, that was a three-year course through the University of Cumbria that they sponsored us through and that took us into kind of a shift lead second nurse kind of position, that was really fantastic for learning and great for my development. Once we finished that course it then became a possibility that we could top up from an assistant practitioner to a fully registered nurse and by completing another three years, costs again supported by Risedale.
So, in total it took me six years however, since my group have qualified, you now have the ability now to study from health care assistant straight to registered nurse instead of having to do both those different courses and taking the six years, it can actually be completed within four years.
So I do believe I'll stay in social care and it is where my heart lies, I've had a lot of experience within this sector. The chances that you get to build, significant relationships in terms of the residents that we care for, we can have them in sometimes for years and we're able to do so much and change their quality of life so much.
In addition to that and what comes with it is the family relationship, the relationship that we can we can build and the trust that we can build with them, going above and beyond for the residents and the families is what this whole this job is all about. It can be a very sad part of the job but terms of providing excellent end-of-life care, setting our standards to be the best we can be.
In terms of providing efficient end-of-life care, that supports the residents through that time and the families, the emotional support required for that and everything that goes with it and there's so much benefit, there's so much reward from that from those kind of situations when it's done properly.
I don't feel like you necessarily get that on wards when I've had experience on wards and things within the NHS and they were fantastic, amazing for learning and hugely appreciative of what was offered there.
However, that those the chance to build those relationships and to get that those meaningful relationships wasn't necessarily as much in terms of how fast people move through the wards and the speed of the care needed in those settings. For me health and social care is where my heart lies and I'll definitely be staying in this in this setting.
