How glad I am
Jackie has asked me to write her weekly newsletter for The Royal London this week, and I’ve taken the opportunity to tell you something quite private about me.
For a long time, I didn’t enjoy my job very much. I’d worked hard to get where I wanted to be, and was guilty that the end result hadn’t satisfied me as much as I thought it was going to. I was seriously considering giving up my medical career, and was actively looking for other jobs.
I had a lot of support from Alistair Chesser, our Chief Medical Officer, who has been a good mentor to me. He encouraged me to look at things more broadly, and not to throw the baby out with the bath water. There were of course bits of my job that I really liked, and in my bad temper I’d started to overlook them and focus on the bits that weren’t fun anymore. He encouraged me to apply for my current job, and I can’t properly express in words how glad I am. Now I love my job, and enjoy every single day at work, even when I’m exhausted and need a holiday. I’m not sure that ever happened to me before. It’s exposed me to parts of medicine that I’d never even thought about before, and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me (Alistair told me it would, but I didn’t believe him). It’s given me true confidence in my own abilities, as well as taught me valuable lessons about myself. In the words of someone else that inspired me recently, “I can’t believe I almost didn’t get the chance to do this”.
Many of us walk past the old Royal London front block on our way in to work – I don’t always go that way, but sometimes vary my route in a sad attempt to be a bit spontaneous (sigh…). I’ve been really excited by the work that’s started there, transforming the shell of the building that has represented life, death and hope to the East End for centuries into a modern town hall, to continue serving its local community, and giving it new purpose. The Royal London historically was described as a friendly hospital, as a second family, and people spent their entire careers here. That spirit is still with us, and whilst the blue building doesn’t have all the charm (aka scuff marks and woodchip wallpaper) of the old building, the same collective spirit still burns inside people working here.
The reason I’m telling you about myself, and talking about regeneration, is that what happened to me could happen to you. If the post-Christmas blues are getting you down, if work has lost its appeal, and if you think you need a change, it’s likely that this amazing beast of a hospital can help you to find that new job/target/interest/goal. Barts Health is huge, and there’s an opportunity in it for everyone. One of my aims in Specialist Medicine division is for it to be a place that people really want to work in, where they know that they’ll be developed and supported, and can find work that they love doing. If you want advice, we can give it to you. If you want a mentor, there’s someone here that can do that. If you don’t know what to do next (emotionally, spiritually or occupationally) then there are loads of places we can point you towards for help. I want everyone that I work with to have the opportunity to make the most of their own opportunities, to develop the potential of every person, no matter where that might take them. I know that my colleagues feel the same.
Every week I’m grateful for my colleagues, who are committed and dedicated to working hard for the benefit of our patients. I feel constantly guilty that I might not be able to express my thanks often enough, or in meaningful enough ways. I think I know what my colleagues would tell me – that they don’t do it for the thanks, that they do it because of an inbuilt drive to save and improve the lives of our patients and their families, that they do it because they love their jobs, and that they do it because they don’t know any other way to be. Nevertheless, it is amazing, and I am grateful.
Andrew Kelso, consultant neurologist