I’ve always been interested in healthcare to an extent
I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career when I left school. I’ve always had an interest in mental health and considered studying it in higher education, however I eventually settled on criminology at Northumbria University because I really enjoyed crime documentaries and wanted to see what I could do with that passion. My interest for studying mental health, and helping people, never went away. I was able to incorporate it in my dissertation where I covered domestic violence.
I worked in retail while studying at university but, after I graduated, I knew it was time for me to try something new. A friend was a Team Leader in the Patient Care Coordination (PCC) team and referred me to Connect Health. I’d never worked in healthcare before, but I had dipped my toe into mental health and I was ready to expand on that and begin a new challenge.
Connect Health opened me up to many different career possibilities
I initially joined Connect Health as a Patient Care Advisor (PCA) in 2017, before moving to the role of Quality Support Advisor (QSA) in under a year. During my time in these roles, there wasn’t a dedicated Learning and Development (L&D) Advisor for training within the PCC team and no training content in place for PCC! I was able to get involved with building training plans and content from scratch for everything they do.
This meant I was able to get involved in projects, inductions, mobilisations of new services and more to ensure the PCA’s were skilled and there were no gaps in knowledge or skills.
I was then approached by the L&D Team to interview for the position of System Trainer. That is when I completed the 12 week training for the new target operating model in PCC whilst in L&D Team.
It’s incredibly rewarding supporting patients through their journey to the place they need to be to manage their pain. It feels like you’re making a difference to someone’s life.
I’ve had such a positive experience growing and developing within Connect
In previous companies, I’ve often felt that there wasn’t much opportunity to progress in the role I was in and try new things. At Connect, there are so many different specialties and departments across the business that it opened me up to opportunities and career paths that I hadn’t even considered yet. When I joined L&D, I knew I’d be helping more colleagues across the business, rather than just the people in my team, to reach their full potential and to really thrive in their roles, which I find so rewarding.
One thing that doesn’t change between teams is our objective – to help people
In July 2021 I was promoted to Learning and Development Advisor and progressed to my current Business Partner role a year later. My role, alongside the other L&D Business Partner, is centred around supporting the business to deliver a learning offering for Connect Health colleagues across all services – clinical, PCC and support. Our responsibility is to evolve the learning provision so our colleagues feel confident in their role and can progress their careers.
In 2022, we relaunched the Connect Health Academy to create a learning platform for all colleagues. Within this, we launched 10 new catalogues and a brand new mandatory learning suite. The system included manager and learner dashboards so that our teams could manage the learning materials more effectively and receive updates on their team.
I love helping my colleagues help patients
Working at Connect Health, whatever role you’re in, can be a bit challenging and fast paced but I’ve found that no matter what department you work in, it’s incredibly fulfilling helping patients, even indirectly. In PCC, I was on the frontline helping people but in L&D I’m helping to make the business more educated and, in turn, creating better outcomes for patients.
I get a sense of accomplishment in supporting both colleagues and patients.