4 years ago I had to give up my job at a local nursing home due to ill health and to say I was gutted would be an understatement, I loved working there and it broke my heart to leave.
Now, four years on from that and with those health problems which robbed me of my working life, independence and confidence now sorted and having gained a new knee just for good measure, I decided the time had come for me to return to the work place.
I needed to get my independence back after relying on Hari so much for the past few years and also my confidence had suffered greatly from spending so much time at home on my own. I found that all government agencies which are supposedly there to help disabled people who are out of work as much use as chocolate teapots and after realising that I could only depend on myself to find me work I set about it with enthusiasm.
However, on applying for a few admin jobs I discovered that things had changed considerably in those short 4 years and that although I've always worked in admin so had a steady working history, I was no longer suitable for most jobs as the role of the secretary/admin had evolved into a much more managerial based role.
Once upon a time in an office you would have had an Office Manager/Senior Secretary, then under her there would have been one or more middle-of-the-range secretaries and then at the bottom the Office Junior. Now it seemed that all those job titles had been rolled in to one all encompassing title of Office Administrator.
So I had a think about it and thought 'what would I really like to do, what sector would I like to work in if I could choose any?'.
I decided a medical environment would be an interesting & challenging place to work and ideal for me as hospital environments don't scare me, hell I've been in and out of hospital so much in my 46 years that they feel quite safe & homely to me. When I go for my out-patient appointments at various departments we pass little rooms in corridors with their doors propped open and those rooms contain lots of women all sat tap-tapping away at keyboards, deep in concentration and there are piles and piles of paper and medical files and everything exciting to a filing & organisation freak like myself and THAT is the kind of place I would like to work!
So, as applying for jobs & attending interviews wasn't doing the trick, I decided to look for a college course in medical administration and found a City & Guilds Level 2 course with an AMSPAR qualification - which stands for The Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Managers, Administrators and Receptionists - and it seems thats what you need to get a foot in the door.
I applied, was interviewed, got my text books, sorted funding and soon 12th September came.
Nervous doesn't even begin to describe how I felt last Thursday morning. I was beyond nervous, and considered backing out quite a few times but desperately wanted to kick start my life off so despite the sick feeling, the nerves and the thousands of butterflies going bonkers in my stomach I arrived at the college around 9am. Hari, bless him, came with me and we had a cuppa together in the canteen then he wished me luck and off I went in the lift (this college is completely wheelchair accessible) to the 3rd floor and into my class.
Thursday - the first day flew by in a whirl of induction information, slide show presentations, meeting 16 other students and the lovely tutor. There was a good mix of nationalities and ages and to my delight, I wasn't the oldest there as I'd feared - woohoo.
There was an exercise in getting to know each other and chance to mingle when we went on a tea break and lunch. It's mostly women on this course, which I guess is to be expected although there are 2 blokes.
Friday - the second day found us downstairs on the ground floor in a room with no pc's.
Today we got our id badges which double as cards for using library & college facilities. We learned bones of the body, pharmaceutical abbreviations and were given the phonetic alphabet to take home and learn.
So, in conclusion at the end of my first week I arrived home absolutely knackered, so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. But above all I was excited about the future and what else I could learn. Those first 2 days had been fun, we'd had lots of laughs as the tutor has lots of tales to tell, most of which had us laughing and I actually enjoyed mixing with people although I was still having a major problem with confidence and on the two occasions the tutor had tried to get me to stand in front of the class to recite something I was mortified and wanted the ground to open and swallow me! But I am sure I'll get past that. Most importantly I can't wait for Thursday to go back!!
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