HCA training and trust induction day 1

So its now January 2010, and I'm sat in a truckers cafe, waiting to start my first day as a Community Healthcare Assistant. It had been an eventful Christmas, having moved back to Harlow for a few weeks, then the mad rush to find a room, or flat in Croydon, needless to say www.rightmove.com proved to be invaluable. I managed to get a room in central Croydon for a small fortune! and had moved in the day before. I lived there for a whole month, and in that time I met only 1 of my 5 house mates! but more on that later.

So having finished my breakfast, I wondered around to the Health Centre, signed in at the reception (for once she was quite pleasant, which I was to discover later wasn't the norm for receptionist) and was escorted up to the staff room to wait for the Cluster Matron. I hadn't worried about starting this role, until now, everyone knows that a Matron is a very high ranking nurse, and this would be my first interaction with my new boss, and a chance to make a good first impression. There was two other new HCA's starting at the base with me, and we all sat there for a good 15 minutes. During this time i got to know the people who were in the same boat as me, one was a returning to practice nurse, (at the time this meant nothing to me!) and the other had been a home care carer, (this I knew a bit about as my mum had spent the last few years working as one).

In walked the Matron, complete with a Royal Blue Tunic and Fob watch, (no hat or belt), her manner was very welcoming and friendly, not like what i was expecting, I had envisioned a more "Carry on Matron" style of nurse to walk through the door. She set the scene of how the teams where organised, and that she wasn't  my Matron, but that the other two would  Matrons job shared (another thing that I didn't understand!) the lead for my cluster, each Cluster in my base was made up of two district nursing teams, with a similar structure.

The DN team I was a signed to, consisted of one DN sister and 3 RGN, and myself. I met the team and was not surprised to find out that there was only 3 other men working form the Health Centre. 1 Matron, 1 DN (in training), and 1 RGN. for that first day i was left in the care of the cluster admin staff, and helped with fielding phone calls, and other admin tasks. At 2pm all the teams returned to the health centre, oh my the place was heaving with Nurses! The reason became apparent, as i was called over, and the DN explained that we were going to have a handover of todays' patient visits, and to assign tomorrows lists, as well as any pm visits, for today.

thanks for reading,

James