Job Title
Is your role clinical or non-clinical?
Where are you based?
In the community with the Learning Disability Team and on a forensic inpatient hospital ward for people with a learning disability.
When you were at school, did you want to join the NHS?
No, I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was younger.
How did you join the NHS?
When I left University, I worked in a pub, travelled, taught English abroad and worked in admin. I soon realised I wanted more of a challenge. I came across Speech and Language Therapy by accident and worked towards applying for a relevant course for a couple of years by volunteering. I went back to University to complete a course in Speech and Language Therapy in 2010 and qualified in 2015.
What’s your day-to-day like?
As a Speech and Language Therapist, I look at what people find difficult with communication and understanding information. I also work with people with eating and drinking difficulties.
What are some of the challenges?
Fitting everything in. There’s always more to do than there is time or resources. Trying to get my ideas and thoughts about what I see into the heads of other people so that they understand, remember and find useful.
What is the best part of your role?
I like working with a team: staff on the ward, other professionals or people who support our clients. Our clients are vulnerable and extremely disadvantaged. I also love that I can leave work at work because keeping a boundary between work and home is important.
What colleagues support you in your role?
We have an Admin team that are really helpful. I am supervised by two very good Speech Therapists and work closely with other professionals such as Nurses, Occupational Therapists and Psychologists.
Anything else you would like to share to a young person who is thinking about a career with the NHS?
It feels good to be part of something with such a long history that was founded with a collective spirit.