INTERVIEW 3

Interview 3

The best job, I ever had..was achieved without me even trying at the interview.  I had applied for the very same job, six years ago when it first came on the market.  I was working for the Local Authority ( local Government) in the community as a care assistant - a job I had been doing since 1998, and previously I worked in two residential homes as a care assistant.  Working in one particuilar home made me question CARE as there were, at that time, no such thing as 'training' other than working with an employee and actually doing the job under your own common sense and application of it.  I worked in this home, and witnessed a level of care, which was alarming.  I saw service users being shouted at, and treated in an appalling manner, which I knew was humiliating and unnecessarily cruel.   I noticed when I worked with one certain carer, one particular lady used to use her buzzer all through the night.  One morning I came and her family had removed her from the home, she had a skin tear on both wrists, and told a story about the night carer that she had dragged her from her bed.  Whenever I was on in this home, the lady didn't buz, she slept soundly, or if she needed the commode, she buzzed only once for it.. and then returned to sound sleep.  When I worked with one particular carer she never stopped buzzing all night ?   One mornning, I saw her pretty early in the day room, say about six-thirty, she had got herself dressed and was sitting quietly in her chair.  This carer came along, and said " and what do you think you are doing ? you can get back to your room and have a wash properly"..and she escorted this lady, back to her small dreary room.  I Knew this attitude was wrong, she had crushed her independence and her achievement immediately, and bullied her back to where she wanted her, in her room.  I knew it wasn't right, but I was young and new to care,  and she had already escorted her back before I got there.  The attitude of the 'carer' was wrong, she was a 'jailer' not a carer.  I also saw her shouting at a man with obvious dementia.  To a new carer like me, who had never worked with vulnerable persons in homes, this was a dilemma.  Is this how you are supposed to act ?  I did not act like this, I had inborn respect of others, not like this person.  I stopped working at this home, but it was my misfortune to encounter this carer again in another home, and her antics were the same.  I was then working for the local authority and I was well trained and valued by my employer enough to be taught to use respect in all issues with the public.. which I already knew.  These dinosaur carers want putting to death, and never let being loose near a loved one, ever.  
I had been playing netball this morning, I was dressed in my netball attire.  A fellow netballer said they were looking for staff, in a residential home nearby.  I said I was interested.  After the game, we usually go into the Sports bar for a liquid refreshment and a laugh. I phoned the home, and they said I could go and pick up an application, as this was my only day off for another seven days, I  drove the five miles to pick up the application.
I knew this home, as I had worked in the community for the Local Authority in the same village over the years.  I was at one time a peripetetic carer, and travelled the borough working in all towns and villages, as far as Rotherham, Mexborough, and up to Stainforth, High Marnham and a wonder place called Fishlake - which is on land split by dikes and was probably dredged by the Dutch three hundreds years ago, and would be reclaimed land.  There are canals all over, you can be driving along and think you are haveing an illusion as boats seem to drift across the landscape, but they are on little canals. Yes I loved this work.  But this home, the one I had driven to , is in Rossington, which is an ex mining village close to my heart.  I return here and feel at home - even though my birth place has long been at logger heads with this village, mainly due to Rossington  being a Yorkshire  village, and where I live is a Nottinghamshire village, and events with the mining industries in both villages have been explosive.  The miners strike caused, or should I say, re opened a rift that was always there, the strike of 84 added much salt to the wound, and they still harp on about it today.  I still love the place, and feel like its mine.
If you can imagine, I am wearing my netball sports wear, bar the GK ( Goal Keeper) tabbard and I approach the office for an application.
" is it Ok if I fill it in now ?"
" yes, take a seat" said Admin
" Excuse me, have you ever worked in a home before ?!"
I saw a bespecticaled man peering out of an office, looked like swatty Admin sat at his desk.
" people who have worked on homecare, have come here before, and they didn't take to the job" he said, standing up and looking concerned.
" Yes I have worked in many homes"  I said, two private homes and all of the Local Authority ones, even Positive Steps, which access hospital dischargees,  I just want to work and I am ready to go"
" Do you have any qualifications ?"
"yes I have my Diploma in Health and Social Welfare 3" I said.
" give me a job and I will work Christmas for you"
He laughed, picked up the phone, and rang Sister.
" just wait three minutes, I will be with you"
I sat down, thinking over things, filling in the application, remembering what I had said in the foyer to my friend that had also come for a job, as she was struggling with her application being that she had not done a lot of care work.  I told her she was at the other end of the scale to me, I had started at her age, twenty odd years ago, and she would pick it up easily. But seeing me bomb through the application like billyO had intimidated her perfromance.  As she was only young and inexperienced.  She said she had made a mess of the form, I said ask for another one and fill that in.  She said no, she was rubbish.  I said you are not, you have not got much to put down on your form as you have only just started.  I think she looked like she didnt want to be here,  I could feel her emotion and I had to act like I did not feel it.  I guess this is why, I am a good carer.  You don't have to respond to all the feelings, you must keep them in check.  Doing this is second nature to some, as they bottle their own emotion so well that they appear machinelike in manner.  I dare not say German, as my father was German, but that is what it appears.
A lady arrived, in a smart navy uniform.
"Pauline come in"  said the specky Admin clerk
" I am the manager, and this is the Head Nurse "
He smiled like a cheshire cat.  The rabbit hole I fell in actually saved me.  
" you thought I was a spotty Admin Clark, wrong"
I was given an hour and a half interview, and each question apparently I answered perfect in a most relaxed manner.  He laughed, and she laughed and I just was myself.  He gave me the job there and then, and said, 
" I am giving you the post now, as you are calm, relaxed and poised and speak properly which is what we want, and we want experience to work with the inexperieced"
I was amazed, that I had not prepared, had not studied all of the statutary procedures of care..the movement and handling lingo, the joys of infection control..the six C's of the Nhs, which are Courage, Confidentiality,Compassion,Continuety, Courtesy and I forget the last flipping C, I had just gone in there with the strength of a Netball player and whamed it in the net...for once in my life..and I felt like an American doing the home run. 
One of the most boring questions I keep getting asked on interviews is
" tell me, an example of when you went...that extra mile ?"
and I say, in Care..you go the extra mile EVERY DAY...AS STANDARD.. but not many get that..they don't get what I mean.  Do you ?