Mary Dooley worked as a book-keeper before she decided to turn her skills to caring over six years ago. She had contemplated nursing in the past but went down the road of accounts for many years. As her sister works as a home carer, she had a good idea what was involved, taking the leap some years ago. The result: she loves it. In fact, she loves it so much and is so good at it, Mary is representing the Clare and North Tipperary office as that office Carer of the Year for 2015.
I asked Mary why she enjoys it so much and you can just tell by the joy in her voice that her work is a labour of love. She loves chatting to people, getting to know them well. She gets huge satisfaction from “putting a smile on people’s faces”. She loves helping them to take care with their appearance, co-ordinating their clothes so they feel and look smart. It can happen, of course, that sometimes a client may not want to get tidied up or have a shower but they always admit to feeling better and feeling smart once Mary has helped them. She gets on well with her clients and still visits one client in a nursing home once or twice a week to say hello and see how she is. It’s always sad when a client passes away or moves into a nursing home, that’s the one element of the job that can take some getting used to.
Mary works an average of thirty hours a week, working two or three hours at the weekend days and usually mornings and some evenings during the week. The appointments are usually one to two hours and sometimes Mary will see a client both morning and evening. Her days usually start at 8:30 or 9am and two or three times a week, she finishes at 9pm.
We’d like to congratulate Mary on her achievements and wish her well.
If you would like to train to be a carer, if you feel that you always wanted to nurse or that caring is the right job for you, you can complete your training while working so do get in touch.
