Why did you want to join the NHS?
As I previously said, I had the opportunity to do a placement at Great Ormand Street Hospital, where I did my registration portfolio. It was my time working at this placement that cemented within me a desire to work within the NHS, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Great Ormand Street and the people there were extremely welcoming, helpful and knowledgeable. It was the perfect environment for me to flourish and learn more about a career I was becoming more and more eager to move into.
The same is true of colleagues within North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, since moving to Peterborough I have continued to learn and continue to enjoy my work. The people all across the hospital have a common purpose, to provide our patients with the best possible care, and I feel privileged to play a part in doing exactly that.
What do you love most about your role?
I love the fact that my work plays an important part to helping patients, I find it extremely rewarding to know that the work I am doing in Blood Transfusion is helping to save the lives of patients.
It is also very satisfying to know that the knowledge that I have acquired during my time in education, especially at University, is helping me to support our patients. It is great to be able to put into practice knowledge that during my time at University I worked hard to understand or learn about. It makes the whole process, from University application to now, extremely fulfilling.
How has Covid-19 impacted on your role?
Covid was a bit of scare for everyone in Transfusion as we knew we still had a lot of routine work ahead of us but did not know how the national blood stocks would be affected. It was initially a time of uncertainty which is always worrying. However, as a surprise to everyone in transfusion blood stocks were not really affected and in fact donors that had not donated for a while started donating again in a public response to the pandemic.
In addition, we have been taking part in the covalescent plasma trial in the hopes to help patients severely affected by Covid. It has been trying times to be honest but as a team we have overcome and worked hard to maintain and improve the service we provide to service users and patients.