Annie Capon tells us about her journey to CUH.
What’s your role in our organisation?
Hand therapy occupational therapist (OT)
Tell us a bit about your CUH journey – when did you join, what positions have you held here?
I qualified and have worked in the NHS since 2007, but I’ve only been in the CUH Trust since late 2020 and been off for maternity leave for 9 months of that time, so I still feel pretty new here.
Despite this, I find everyone really friendly and approachable. This was reaffirmed when I spent 6 weeks re-deployed onto the wards during a covid peak early 2021. I hadn’t worked on a ward for 10 years so felt really rusty on remembering how to assess and the process of discharge planning, but everyone helped me out and before long I was back into the swing of it.
I was very glad to get back to out patient hand therapy afterwards though!
What do you enjoy most about your role?
In hand therapy you get to have protected time with each patient and really get to know them. We see them improve and support them both physically and psychologically through their rehabilitation, be it from a simple injury such as a fall through to more traumatic injuries from physical assaults or car accidents.
Every patient is different and requires a different rehabilitation path, so it always keeps me on my toes.
Plus the field of hand surgery and therapy is still evolving and improving meaning that we can never know it all and there is always something new to challenge us.
What advice would you give to someone who is starting their AHP career journey?
Get some face to face experience of the job to really know what it means to be an OT. Yes, there are lots of fields of OT but it is best to start on the wards, really getting the basics done well before branching out. Good foundations make a good home!