60 seconds with...Angel Jordan
We spoke to Angel about her role in the endoscopy department, highlights from the past year and being awarded Star of the Month.
1) Hi Angel, can you tell us more about your role?
I’ve been at Whipps Cross for one year and four months. I started in Outpatients as a receptionist, and I recently moved to Endoscopy.
I very much enjoyed my time at outpatients, it was a good opportunity to get to know how a hospital works because it’s my first job at the NHS. Then I chose one speciality which is close to my heart, endoscopy, as I worked with all of the endoscopy doctors in outpatients, and they all wanted me to come here.
2) What does a typical day or week look like for you?
When I was in outpatients I used to support three of four different clinics in the morning and the same in the afternoon.
A typical day involves preparing the clinics, liaising with the nurses and doctors, making sure all the clinic lists are printed, making sure the files they need and patients’ notes are available for them. Once the doctors have seen the patients, my role is do the check out for the patient and booking them on to the next appointment so that everybody that had an appointment on that day has an upcoming appointment booked.
I also prepare the clinics for next day too and make sure I leave it ready to go for the next day.
Endoscopy in comparison to Outpatients is a lot quieter, I miss some of the business but I also enjoying having more time to work on my day-to-day activities. I can focus on one speciality and each patient can get my undivided attention.
3) Anything in particular that you enjoy the most about your job?
The community spirit because we all get on really well and we always help each other.
When I left outpatients, I realised just how appreciated my work was because my doctors and all of the team were all very grateful and sending heartfelt messages how much they were going to miss me and all the amazing things that I did for their clinics.
I thought to myself that I actually made an impact on all of these people, I realised I made their days easier and it’s so nice to know that you are appreciated, that you efforts don’t go unnoticed.
4) How do you feel about being awarded Star of the Month?
I was shocked to get the recognition, when I read the nomination, I was just like I was just doing my job, I didn’t feel that I wasn’t doing anything above and beyond because that’s just who I am, that’s my nature to do these things, and to make sure that everybody is happy. I didn’t realise that the appreciation for my job was huge and how many people thought of me as their favourite receptionist and how much they enjoyed working with me.
Patients are here because they are not well so I treat them the same way I would like my family to be treated if they came into the hospital.
I have to say that a couple of people don’t call me the receptionist, they call me the ‘exceptionist’.
5) Is there a patient highlight that you treasure the most?
There was an incident once, which was my first patient crash incident. One day we had a special needs patient at outpatients waiting to be seen, and she was screaming and no one cared because people knew it was a special needs patient and she was doing this the whole time while waiting to be seen, but then I looked over closely and noticed that something was not right and then I realised that she was in the middle of having an epileptic fit so I called the nurses and the crash team, cleared out the area and patients.
Two weeks later, she came back to say thank you and I was very surprised.
6) Anything else that you’d like to share?
Working at Whipps Cross has changed my life, I really enjoy it, it’s probably the best job I’ve had. This hospital has the most community spirited, people genuinely want to help each other, I feel that we are just going to get bigger and better over the next couple of years.
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