Hello, my name is Simon Cliff and I’ve been a Patient Services Advisor since March 2020, the start of Covid-19.
My job involves preparing and serving meals and refreshments and some cleaning duties. I worked in the automotive industry previously, but I wanted to work somewhere where I felt could make a difference and have job satisfaction.
Naturally I was concerned about working in the hospital during the pandemic. Two weeks before starting my role I had Covid19 symptoms so my household self-isolated for 14 days and I had to delay my start date.
My concerns were about the availability of required PPE, However during my time working for the Trust I have never been short of PPE, it has always been available.
“all the staff I have worked with have been nothing but friendly, welcoming and always keen to help if needed.”
I’ve found the work to be fast paced and rewarding. Mostly, I really enjoy working with patients, meeting new people and talking to them about their day. As patients are currently not able to have visitors, I like to engage them in conversation when possible. It was nice to talk to a patient about football the other day. It was also the patients’ birthday and we got him a cake, which made him so happy. We shared the cake with the rest of the patients which went down well.
The best part of working in Hotel Services is that the department has a really nice team working for them. All the people I have worked with have been nothing but friendly, welcoming and always keen to help if needed. I get to work on a four day on, three day off rotation, which is is really good for good work/life balance with two small children. I work on various different wards which is great as no two days are the same. I’ve found the clinical staff are all really friendly and happy to help too. I feel like we are all part of one big team.
My top tips for new starters are:
• Get a pen as you will need it
• Be positive and engage with patients.
My coping strategy during this pandemic is:
Having a positive mind-set and get involved in talking to lots of different patients – it’s really rewarding.