Česky
What brought you to healthcare?
My first part-time job, which gave me my first experience of patient care, led me to work as a general nurse and to healthcare in general. At the age of 15, I joined an Alzheimer's centre where I worked as a nurse. It was a nice job, I enjoyed it, but it was very demanding for a 15-year-old girl. Now I'm glad that I wasn't discouraged by the difficulty of the job at the time, but rather more so by the decision to apply to nursing school.
Have you also tried working as a general nurse abroad?
Yes, I worked in three places. The first was the small town of Wigan, which is just outside Manchester. I didn't really like it there because the healthcare wasn't very good, the hospital there was basically a converted church and because it was a small town I also had trouble fitting in with the non-multicultural team. I subsequently moved to Wakefield, which is just outside Leeds. Things were better there, but I was still attracted to the bigger city. Eventually I landed in a private hospital in Brighton, just outside London, where I really liked it in terms of the team and the work.
Isn't working abroad more promising than here? What brought you back to the Czech Republic?
The competence of nurses abroad and here cannot be compared. Neither can the public's attitude to the nursing profession or their financial remuneration be compared. In England it is a great prestige to be a nurse, here the attitude towards this work is often underestimated. I decided to return because of my family and I also missed the Czech Republic. It was a nice job, but I came back thinking that I could find an equally nice job here, which I have now done.
What brought you to the Diagnostic Centre?
When I came back, I started my PhD at the University of South Bohemia. As part of my studies, research was to take place in Arizona and Ireland. The aim of the research was to compare the cultural competencies of nursing students in these countries at selected universities, and subsequently here. I was to extract the best from the concept and help to gradually apply it in the Czech Republic to the education of nurses so that they could better and more effectively prepare for multicultural patients. Unfortunately, the covid came and travel was practically impossible. I do not enjoy collecting data remotely, I prefer personal experience and knowledge, so I interrupted my studies and started looking for a job.
I got all my medical education in České Budějovice, including a Master's degree at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at the University of South Bohemia. As I was looking for a new job, a familiar face caught my eye, and that was the Director of Operations at the Diagnostic Centre, Pavel Scholz, who had taught me at the faculty. For the first time, I was looking forward to the interview. He was a guarantee that I could trust the company.
So what position do you hold now?
I have been working as a head nurse since March this year. Every day is different and my workload is evolving operationally, also because we are just starting up now. I am in charge of all outpatient clinics and all non-medical staff. At the moment I have 10 nurses in my team, but we envisage as the operation continues to develop that we could eventually have up to double that number.
How do you like it at the Diagnostic Centre?
Not many people get to be at the birth of a new project where they can voice their ideas and have them implemented. I have the opportunity to set up new processes, choose the staff, influence the atmosphere in the workplace right from the start. I also often help out in the outpatient clinics to see what is really going on behind closed doors, and at the same time, to have a certain amount of representation. This also puts me in contact with the patients, so given the focus of the centre it is mainly paediatric patients.
I'm always looking for something extra, something that adds value to the work. The fact that working at the Diagnostic Centre has that something was already clear to me at the interview. Thanks to AKESO, I found a job where they take care of their employees at the same, if not better, level than abroad. We have a great atmosphere here, I have the opportunity to voice my opinion, there is open communication and also the warm feeling that someone cares about us employees. It's hard to lead a team when you know that whatever you do goes to waste. When someone cares about you, you can pass that feeling on.
Are you a healthcare professional and would you like to be part of our team? We are looking for new colleagues in the Diagnostic Centre! Go to the careers section to view our job openings and employee benefits. We look forward to seeing you.
