Kathryn's story

For most people, being a parent to six children and running your own business would be more than enough to manage, but not for Kathryn!

Kathryn started with Bluebird Care Fareham in November 2021, and other than caring for her ill mother, she had no prior experience of working in care. However, this did not hold Kathryn back from starting a new career and it wasn’t long before she had passed her training and probationary period with ease.

Before becoming a carer Kathryn ran her own eye lash extension business. Unfortunately, her business was affected when the Covid restrictions came into place, and so the search for a new job began.

“I didn’t want to do any job just for the money” explained Kathryn “I saw in the news how desperate the care sector were for care workers and I knew that I could make a difference, so I decided to apply and within the hour I had an interview with Bluebird Care.”

Her caring and compassionate nature makes Kathryn the perfect person for a career in care. However, Kathryn didn’t realise the sense of purpose that she would also receive from her new role.

“Due to my lack of confidence in carrying out some tasks, I felt it took me a while to settle into the role. However, once I got the hang of it I started to look at the elderly in a different way, and had a lot more respect from listening to their personal stories and their life experiences.”

Kathryn was enjoying her new role as a carer in the local community when her eye lash extension business started to build up again, with more of her old customers wanting to book with her.  This meant that she was struggling to work the hours that she had originally committed to for her care role, and so started to rethink her decision to work in care.

“Although I didn’t really want to, I thought the easiest option for me would be to give up the care job.” Kathryn explains her thought process. “I also suffer from anxiety and there were times when I felt I wasn’t as confident and as knowledgable as my colleagues. So, I discussed my circumstances and feelings with my manager, and I am so glad that I did. My manager reassured me that I was doing a good job and we talked about changing my hours to suit my lifestyle. I didn’t even know that this was an option and felt such a relief as I never wanted to stop the care work completely.”

“After changing my work pattern to fit around my family and business commitments, I now manage to do both jobs. The peace of mind of having a guaranteed wage at the end of the month was a huge relief for me.”

It’s great to hear how Kathryn feels part of the Bluebird Care team. “I feel supported by the office staff and have a lot of respect for the other carers who have done this role for most of their lives. I’m always learning from them.”

When asked what she can take away from her experience so far, that was easy for Kathryn to answer.

“I have learnt not to keep my worries to myself and that most of the time there is a way to work around things.”