Are you thinking of a career change? Do you feel you’re in a rut? Maybe you did the wrong course in college and you’re feeling like you’d like to try something new?
Have you been out of the workforce for some time looking after parents or children? Perhaps you’d like to work part-time to start with? That’s all perfectly possible with Comfort Keepers Home Care.
Today, we bring you the story of Joanna Spillane who started working with Comfort Keepers as a home carer in 2012 and is now a Client Care Co-Ordinator.
Joanna Spillane was in her late twenties and working as a retail manager when she wanted a career change. She felt it was time for a new direction in her life and a friend’s mother thought she would make an excellent home carer. Joanna didn’t want to change her career immediately in case it didn’t work out so after doing a module in caring skills, she worked in both roles part-time for a while. The fact that home caring can be a part-time or full-time career meant that she could try it without turning her back on her previous job.
Joanna found out very quickly that her friend’s mother was right. She loved working as a home carer so it didn’t take long for her to decide to work at it full-time. She worked five days a week and was on-call one weekend per month. She did the training for the QQI award as she worked full-time but found it was perfectly manageable.
I asked Joanna what she enjoyed most about working as a home carer. She enjoyed the feel good factor, feeling personally fulfilled at the end of each day and immensely enjoyed being able to help someone else live a normal life in their own home with a little assistance. She got to know other carers well, both when working a two-carer shift, working with live-in carers and also making it to occasional coffee mornings. She mentioned that she got to know all the office workers very well too.
Joanna only became a home carer in October 2012 when she joined Comfort Keepers. In less than three years, she has progressed to being a Client Care Co-ordinator and I’m sure it won’t be long before she is a Client Care Manager. Her co-ordinator role involves organising the home carers, doing reviews with clients and dealing with any issues that may arise. She loves her job and so might you, if you’d like to apply for one of our positions for home carers.
If working as a home carer appeals to you, do check out our Vacancies page. Joanna mentioned that they always have vacancies for carers in the Nutgrove office to if that’s your area, do give her a ring.
