Sweet and sour

25 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

In the week I had a phone call to inform me that my occupational health clearance was ready and my last reference had been collected and verified. So I was officially offered the healthcare assistant position on the  nurse bank at the new South  Bristol Community hospital.

I start an induction week from the 3rd of September, to do all the mandatory training such as manual handling, fire safety, health and safety and lots of other exciting stuff like that. Then I will be let loose on the wards to work when I’m able and when they want me.

At least then I’ll have something to do as I still don’t have my CRB to enable me to start my nurse practice for my Return to nurse practice course. Last week I found out the reason why I had not received it…. the form was never sent!

I phoned the CRB helpline to discover that they had no record of me. A call to the recruitment department told me that all my paperwork for the honorary contract was handed over to the person doing the checks for the hospital job. Unfortunately the urgency of time was not handed over and the importance of the CRB check for my honorary contract was lost.

So what now? well I wait. Apparently, at the moment, the checks are taking on average 9 days to be returned. In the meantime I have been liaising with the management team on the unit to meet my mentor to go through my objectives and competences. I’ve identified any competences  I can achieve without being on the unit and will get my teeth into those.

If the CRB comes back within 2 weeks I’m confident I can fit in the hours I need to do before the beginning of November.

I live in hope.

So close I can almost smell it

18 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

I had a phone call yesterday from Human Resources and my occupational health clearance is now ready.

So now the only thing standing in the way of getting on with the practical part of my Return to nurse practice course is my CRB.

I have to admit I’m fed up with saying I hope it doesn’t take long to come through, because I’ve been saying that for weeks now. At this rate I’ll be squeezing in all the 100 hours I need to complete in a couple of weeks, and run the risk of a relapse of my illness.

It’s very difficult at the moment to remain positive.

But I am encouraged that yesterday I helped my friend move out of her house, we were very busy cleaning, moving things and making many trips to and from the car. I was very tired when I got home last night and this morning when I woke up, but I didn’t feel like I was going to slip into a post exertion coma like I would have done normally when I overdid any activity.

So when my CRB is eventually ready I’m sure that I’ll be able to work without feeling like I’ve died after every shift, which is always a bonus!