Unashamedly we’re hiring at the moment, and changing careers – especially from clinical to a digital health tech scale-up – is a big emotional and practical learning leap. So we chatted with Belinda to learn from her experience to help you decide if you’re brave too.
So, let’s meet Belinda.
RN, Mum, non-techy digital enabler.
And our latest edition to the Customer Success team at Personify Care.
In 2022, I made a giant leap across the chasm.
Like many healthcare workers right now, I was burnt out. Tired. Exhausted. But still driven by my personal journey to support others going through one of the most challenging times of their lives.
“This is my journey – how I stepped across the chasm. From birthing suites to bamboozling business jargon. I share it to give you a glimpse into why a midwife would contemplate leaving a health service when demand has never been higher.”
When my son was born in late 2007 with craniostenosis that required multiple brain surgeries in his first year of life, I was overwhelmed and the nurses were my only lifeline.
I decided then that I wanted to help other parents going through this experience.
So I started my 5 year plan to complete my EN, RN & RM qualifications in 2009 . I had found an outlet to learn from my lived experience and to share my passion to enhance consumer education.
Across metro and rural nursing and midwifery, I worked on projects to increase communication and enable women to have a voice. This included a Rural Referral Pathway that included telehealth consults that kept women in their own communities for longer and in more recent years working as a midwife at NALHN and researching and implementing antenatal e-pathways to help women make informed decisions and support them to navigate their own journey.
In 2022 I knew that I needed to do more to bring education and health care ownership to the people that need it most, the consumers. I was very unsure how I could do this – I was a midwife in an amazing team. The NALHN project, later called POPN (Pregnancy Online Platform NALHN) gave me a taste of what was possible.
Then the Personify Care Customer Success Manager position became available.
I knew that the secret to better patient care was enabling health professionals to provide better information, better reminders, and easier to access forms without adding more burden to an already over stretched workforce.
I’d seen the platform do all this (and more!) and was excited to bring that to other health care settings. I love my job and enjoy watching the little wins happen everyday for both my customers and their patients.
I am making a difference and I can not wait to help make a difference now and into the future.
What would you say to other clinicians trying to explore a new career in tech or digital health?
Change is hard and not for the faint-hearted.
Know why you are going into this new stage in your life. What do you want to achieve, what are your positive outcomes? If you can see them and you can see that moving into digital health is the way forward, then grab it with both hands and start your journey.
The transition from clinical care to behind a PC is challenging, rewarding and amazing. Change is not for the faint hearted but neither is taking someone’s life into your hands everyday, so why not give it a go? If you feel like you can make a difference then nothing should stop you from doing that. Find the new career that gives you back your passion for health care.
Why Personify Care? What do you love most about your role now?
I went into nursing to change lives, empower patients, offer understanding/support and most of all make a positive difference.
I felt like I was instead just walking a pathway set out for me by the constraints within the healthcare system. “Do not walk that way! There is a staff shortage. No do not turn that way, there isn’t time to educate people correctly! And get off the grass as the funding doesn’t allow for that!”
I was stuck. Providing the basics of what I thought I should do to off set everything else.
I want to make a difference in not only consumers journeys but also in staff’s lives.
Personify Care does that.
I have seen it firsthand and wanted to be the one of the people providing that directly to the clinicians in hospitals, everyday. I wanted to give staff more time to spend with patients, more time to educate, while still providing the level of care that is required by the health organisation.
And now everyday as I watch and assist health care services to implement our pathways. I know that I am making a difference, that I am impacting on consumer outcomes.
What’s your biggest loves and challenges of working in healthcare?
The biggest love? Meaningful work.
What I love the most is easy. I love making a meaningful difference to change or shape someone’s health journey outcomes. If you empower people, support them to know they have a say, that they are meant to make choices alongside the health team.
As an RN & RM I made a difference, changing people’s lives one little step at a time. I knew there was no step too small, no assistance too tiny, and no caring that wasn’t needed.
The biggest issue? Time.
Time to take little actions, to listen, to assist, to direct, and to empower. The biggest enemy in providing amazing care, is time. Anything that could save a little time, or assist someone directly without needing more time, is the way to improve and support our systems.
The hardest challenge? Attitudes.
The attitude of people to either create or break through barriers.
Breaking through barriers is the only way to move forward. If we stop at every crossroads or hill that looks too high, then we will never get to the outcome we want.
“Embracing change is the most powerful thing anyone can do in health care. Find a better way, engage consumers, give people back their power through understanding and knowledge-sharing. Find the bridge needed to get to the other side. Then be excited that you were a part of building that!”
Every word is powerful. The question is how do we use our words and actions to make the journey better. Do not let attitudes break it down, or stop at the crossroads in defeat.
Explore current open roles
If you’re keen to learn more about Personify Care, please feel free to get in touch and check out our current open roles.
