After finishing university I started applying for jobs in the healthcare sector. I was fortunate enough to obtain a band 3 position in the NHS, working for LPT in a learning disability short breaks service. My day to day involves delivering personal care, getting out and giving medications as well as following their SALT, physio and occupational health plans. The respite is separated into two bungalows, those that have PMLD and the other that centres around Autism and challenging behaviour. I have gained experience in both but my main base is PMLD, where all the service users are wheelchair reliant. On top of my clinical work, I take on a lot of non-clinical work such as completing pre-admission phone calls before any stay, updating risk assessments and care plans and helping to keep an audit report of the stays. I am now trained in using PEGs, changing tracheostomies and changing and emptying ileostomy bags. Helping to care for the service users is incredibly rewarding, no two are alike and getting to know them, how to communicate with them and making sure their day-to-day routine is carried out has been an incredible learning experience.

During my time at Sunderland University, I was successful in achieving the role as a school coordinator. Throughout the role I was given training on communication, putting together reports and how to gather information anonymously from students. I would attend regular meetings with a variety of staff members throughout the university where I was able to demonstrate my strong communication skills, discussing student concerns and feedback and how to resolve any issues they were having. I enhanced my leadership skills further by helping guide the course representatives, how to analyse the feedback and find common themes as well as flagging potential important factors and how to relay that back to the faculty members in student-staff meetings.

After demonstrating my data analytic abilities during my second-year research methods module, I was approached by my lecturer offering me the opportunity to further enhance my skills over the summer working on a project him and other members of staff which investigated loot box consumption. This greatly increased my analytical skills as I used new analysis which I had yet to be taught, this put me ahead of my cohort, paired with my optional statistics module, this helped me become a stronger researcher where I can confidently create surveys and experiments in Qualtrics and Psytoolkit, clean the data using R and excel as well as analyse the data using SPSS and JASP.

After being elected as a course representative for my cohort by my fellow students, I underwent beginner level training looking at how to communicate effectively and build a rapport with the other students. This was the first time I was able to demonstrate my leadership skills outside of university group work by being able to take charge on issues concerning students and communicating that efficiently with the staff. Working as a team, myself and my fellow reps were able to resolves situations before they became an issue by discussing things that students believed would work well or implement methods that were being received successfully from other modules.

During my time volunteering for the Girl Guides, I gained a lot of new valuable experience and skills as well as improving on my soft skills to a different audience. I would be required to come up with ideas that would help educate the girls (Brownie and Rainbows) in fun and engaging ways which challenged my creative aspect. We would have to find a way to make topics such as bullying, environmental impact and world issues in a way that was appropriate to a young audience and also an audience where some of the girls were neurodivergent. To balance out the heaviness to the girls, we would come up with fun ideas that taught them skills. This was mainly centered around crafts and we would teach them how to sew and embroider as well as create models where they would need to follow instructions. At the end of every session we would do a “wrap up” and chat with the girls about their day. This was to essentially do a welfare check and make sure that none of the topics discussed caused any problems for the girls. I found this challenging at first but in the end, I believe I excelled and enjoyed coming up with a structured plan for the session, which also improved on my time management and leadership skills. Being a positive role model for the girls was incredibly rewarding and I value the experience I gained.

Efficient and successful communication was important in the team to make sure that the store ran smoothly. Here I was able to demonstrate my versatility by working counter, kitchen, drive-thru and dining area. I also helped train new members of staff in each of these areas which also included night shifts and cleaning the equipment. This showed that I was a successful listener as things like cleaning the grills and vats meant you had to be always listening and cautious of your surroundings.

I was able to develop a new skill with customer service in my role at Martin House shop. I would serve as a friendly face for customers as well as helping those with limited mobility navigate around the shop. I had to use my initiative by restocking items when they were depleting as well as pricing the items themselves. I also gained experience with money handling and demonstrated my mathematical ability on the till, too.

I was responsible for making open days run smoothly by guiding potential students and their family and friends to the correct location, as well as giving tours of the campus, answering questions about university life and pointing them in the direction of people they may wish to chat with.