Journal of my first month as a new carer

26 Jul 2024  Sandra Wright  General

We asked one of our new recruits to tell us what it's like to be a carer not having a health and social care background...this is what Jess said...

My First Month as a Carer

It has been one month since I started working for Care with Kindness as a domiciliary carer. Having never worked in the health and social care sector before, I can’t say it hasn’t been a challenge, but with the help of the team I am settling into it, learning important new skills and have met some great people. Here is a glimpse into my journey so far!

The first week began with an induction day in the CWK office with Sandra. I felt a mix of excitement and nerves! Another new carer and I were familiarized with the company, its policies, and the basics of domiciliary care. We were also introduced to manual handling and medication practices. It was great to find out a little more about the kind of work I would be doing and meet some of my new colleagues! Alongside this training I was enrolled in online courses, which have helped guide me through my first few weeks, and we are going to start a Level 2 certificate in Health and Social Care later in the summer.

The next day I went straight into my first shadow visits! I had a great day shadowing lead carer Lisa. I spent the day meeting clients and observing as Lisa showed me what we do during their visits. As lead of medication management, she taught me a lot about a carer’s role in ensuring our clients are taking their medication correctly.

Over the next few days, I shadowed more of CWK’s amazing carers on visits to clients across the area. I quickly realised the breadth of the job – the things we did for clients varied a lot between visits, including giving their medication, helping with their personal care, making meals, taking them out shopping, and odd jobs around the house. I was taught how to correctly transfer service users with limited mobility using different manual handling aids I had never seen before! Moments like these were quite daunting and I am definitely still learning everyday but the reassurance of the rest of the team has made it a lot easier!

After a week of shadowing, I went out on my first solo visits. This was quite scary as the reality of lone working kicked in! However, I felt a great amount of support and CWK were great at following up afterwards to find out how I had got on… and it was all fine!! Even in moments since which have seemed less fine (such as slight confusion over medication timing, not quite understanding the specific preferences of a client, or getting lost in the backroads of East Devon!), help has always only been a text or a phone call away, whatever the time of day.

The best part of the job has been meeting the incredible people CWK supports. I have been getting to know many of them and could listen to them talk all day about their exciting years of life experience, many with long successful careers taking them around the world. I was worried about working on my own in this job, but it has turned out I am always in great company! It is a good feeling to be able to contribute to the lives of these wonderful people and their families.

I am now a month in and have experienced some of the ups and downs of the job already. I have shared in the exciting moments as a client prepares for a visit from their great-grandchildren, but also in the sad moments as I’ve cared for a person in their final days. I have learnt that that no two days are the same. Being a carer has taught me invaluable skills, helped me develop resilience, and given me an important new perspective on life, which I know will be applicable inside and outside of my career, however it progresses.

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