I joined the Trust in October 2002 as occupational therapy assistant working within the then named ‘Rapid Response team’ based in the emergency department.
What’s your role in our organisation?
Specialist occupational therapist
Tell us a bit about your CUH journey – when did you join, what positions have you held here?
I joined the Trust in October 2002 as occupational therapy assistant working within the then named ‘Rapid Response team’ based in the emergency department. After 6 months I was successful in applying for a secondment to attend University to complete a degree in Occupational Therapy and obtained a place at Northampton Uni on their part-time route.
I continued to work part-time as an OTA and attend Uni and took a year’s maternity leave 2005-2006 and finally graduated in 2008.
I started on the Band 5 rotations and worked in orthopaedics, medical, surgery, care of the elderly and then band 6 static post within orthopaedics. I took another years maternity leave 2009-2010 and returned onto the band 6 rotations, working in medical, stroke & rehab, and orthopaedics before applying for my current Band 7 post in outpatient service PRIME, a pre-operative multi disciplinary team for frail elderly patients.
I will shortly be starting a secondment for 9 months within the Communication Aids Specialist team for East of England based here at CUH but covering patients across the region.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
Working with a wider multi disciplinary teams and patient’s! No two clinics are ever the same! I have leaned so much from my colleagues over the years and made lifelong friends.
I really enjoy helping patients, their families and my colleagues get the best possible outcomes for our patients. They have often been struggling at home for a while without realising help and advice is out there.
I love that OT can have such diversity across inpatient, outpatient, physical and mental health.
What advice would you give to someone who is starting their AHP career journey?
To explore all the options – you don’t have to do 3 years solid at university, there are so many options. I definitely took the scenic route but got there in the end!