Tips for moving into working in the nhs sector

A question about : Tips for moving into working in the nhs sector

Hi all i am in the process of undertaking employment in the nhs as a clerk in a hospital department. Now i have previously done 2 years as a student nurse but had to leave that due to health reasosn. Now this department of course will be very different from a ward area. I have of course worked within the nhs as a student nurse but is there any tips you have i could use to begin employment as a proper employed member of staff.

I currently work in retail and have done so for the past 5 years and just wondered how people coped with the change over.

thank you for your help in advance

Best answers:

• sorry for the massive jump im using a public computer and its being weird.
• Pretty much the same as moving from a retail role to any admin job -good admin skills, qualifications - might be worth taking an evening or part time course to back up your application if you don't already have anything like the ECDL
• i have already secrued the job pending standard checks.
• What sort of admin role are you taking on? Secretary? Ward clerk? Medical records? Other?
  Every role is vastly different
• I will be pulling records from medical records getting ready for clinics and putting them back.
• Clinic prep doesn necessarily need any specific extra training, but requires computer skills, a good eye for detail and a lot of initiative- when notes have been misfiled by the previous person, missing referrals and checking with every single file that the top pages correspond to the correct patient. You would be amazed just how many files have the wrong patients paperwork in
• Congratulations! People think working in medical records is dull and boring but it's actually a really good place to be at the moment because there are so many opportunities available depending on how serious you want to take it and of course how much support and encourgement they give you to progress.
  There are plenty of training courses as well as qualifications in records management, get as many as you can. Ask your line manager if you can join IHRIM and do some of their courses. Records usually have a huge budget as it's an expensive function so there will usually be money available for external courses. Records are constantly changing, the way they are kept is changing, records are going electronic, online and in the cloud and the law regarding records and patient information is constantly changing and working in that area during all this change will give you priceless experience and this experience is highly sought after as it's quite niche.
  When you know your stuff and have the paperwork and references to prove it you could end up an archivist in a library, a records manager at a police evidence storage facility, a trainer delivering training sessions to staff in a big bank or a records officer at an external records firm such as Iron Mountain. Or you could stay in the NHS and become an expert manager although an external records management company would pay more.
  It's a really exciting place to be at the moment so my advice would be get to like it and do lots of it, get as much knowledge as possible and be positive
  Best of luck!!
• Thank you for the tips on further training. I didn't think I could extend to that degree. I was just hoping to get foot in the door for admin within the NHS. Can I ask what is irhim please.
  I have had health care experience and always wanted to work in the NHS and due to my circumstances the admin role was the best option for me.
  I know it will be hard at first but hope I learn a lot of skills.
• Join the union.
• The NHS is obliged to go paperless by a certain date, but I'm not sure what that date is. One of my local trusts is in the process of doing it and the other is currently looking for companies to outsource the project to.
  The medical records staff at the "process" trust are finding their job roles changing. Rapidly. They are going to be scanners and their pattern of working hours is changing.
  The other one will probably either offer their staff completely unsuitable positions or they'll be made redundant. There is no option for that trust not to outsource the work.
  Sadly, working for the NHS no longer offers the security or privilege that it used to
• I have a 6 month probationary period and the hours are just great for me as I usually have to rely on my parents to wake me up due to deafness and not hearing normal alarms, this job is evening work is just perfect for me.
  I am willing to learn new things and aware some trusts already are going paper less. Just new things to learn. I hope to stay within nhs but aware times are changing,