About me & My work as a Carer.

So after completing the first post and receiving some fantastic feedback, I realised that it may be helpful if people viewing and reading the blog could get to know a little bit about me, my proposed route into a nursing career, the course I'm completing and a little about my motivation for becoming a nurse.

So conventional boring stuff first (get it out the way) I'm Jamie-lee I'm 23 years old and I live in Kirkham which is a small town between Preston and Blackpool in the north west of England. I've been working as a health care assistant since February 2012 and my motivation for starting this kind of career and ultimately comes from very personal experiences of mine when I lost my Dad to terminal cancer when I was 16 and has been built on by the fantastic nurses and allied health professions I have worked alongside.

It was definitely a difficult time for me but I really admired and respected some of the healthcare professionals that we came into contact with during the time (and believe me he was by no means what any would class as an easy patient). My dad had a pretty big phobia of hospitals and thinking back most medical professionals in general, so when it came to him going to the hospital for tests and later blood transfusions he was less the co-operative. On a few occasions he simply walked out mid-test/transfusion, removed his cannula himself and left.. wild horses couldn't have stopped him. Though the nurses tried. Looking back I really do appreciate just how difficult that situation must have been for them and the fact that each time something like that happened they persisted to try and convince him to stay. After his diagnosis and him and our family making it clear that it was his preference that he could receive as much care as possible at home, parts of the house were adapted and specialist equipment was delivered in order to accommodate his wishes. The community nurses we came into contact with were by far the most compassionate, tactful and understanding health care professions I had met and were largely my first experience with nursing care of any kind.

After going through these situations and loosing my dad I struggled fr a while to find a job that I enjoyed at all really. I did numerous jobs and courses trying to figure it out.

Telesales: Could not handle being sat at a desk on a phone for 8 hours a day
Bar work: Felt monotonous and like I wasn't doing something helpful.
Apprentice Chef: loved the busy atmosphere but really missed interacting with people and feeling like I had a purpose.

Finally I got a job as a health care assistant, I was pretty nervous and really unsure of how my emotions would react dealing with service users who were acutely ill. Turns out I really enjoyed it, It was by no means easy but I worked with a great team who were supportive and helpful and it became like second nature. Don't get me wrong dealing with the death of service users who I cared for for a lng time was difficult, but the gratitude from families is definitely something I relate to and quite honestly there is no better feeling to me than knowing I have done even something minuscule to help that person and make them more comfortable, Even after 12 hour shifts and occasionally while very busy working through breaks to make sure service users receive the care they should.