Worried you will be an outsider at the School for Radials?
So you have no medical or care sector
background or training but you want to engage with SHCR because you want to
make difference and join in the conversation and learn about bringing about
change….
I fit in to this category, I am a video
director and software developer and describe myself as a “creative problem
solver with a warm heart” but being dyslexic I have no formal qualifications as
I learn experientially and am just not wired for the academic approach to
learning.
My biggest fear was that I was not going to
fit in, that my lack of experience, training and qualifications in the field of
health and care would make me “the odd one out” and that
my voice wouldn’t have value amongst so many “experts” and yes that I might
make a fool of myself.
For me going back to school after 45 years
was in itself a personal challenge so when I started to engage with the SHCR
team it came with a lot of preconceptions and a strong sense that I would be
and outsider as a “citizen radical/rebel” so yes I was actually quite shy,
nervous and daunted about enrolling.
How wrong I was! From the very first
contact with SHCR I was welcomed by all, I very soon felt part of something
important and valuable. A lovely surprise was to discover we were all there for
the same reason “we care” and wanted challenge the conventional wisdom in
positive and innovative ways to improve health and care at all levels.
I got a huge amount of personal support and
encouragement from the SHCR team to join in and then throughout the term and I
soon found myself chatting people I would never normally have contact with,
doctors’, surgeons, nurses and people from all sorts of specialties and
backgrounds. In short I felt part of the family, part of something that has no
hierarchy, where everyone is equal, where views are both respected and
validated and as you will find the sense of “energy” is quite tangible and
lasting.
There is no such thing as an outsider at
SHCR, so no matter what your background be it patient carer, advocate, third
sector or you just want to be part of bringing health and care into the 21st
century …come on in the waters lovely.
The school needs people like us because
we don’t know what we can’t do and so our perspective on things can really add
to the conversation and challenge entrenched thinking. If anyone had said to me
over the last 45 years I was going to be on the faculty advisory group for a
school, I would probably have asked you how much you had had to drink?
As I have found the skills you acquire and
the new friends you meet carry on and develop and can be used in all sorts of
ways to understand and bring about change.
Feel free to chat to me @chicustard it’s a
unique experience and you will come away inspired and motivated at being part
of such and amazing and truly global conversation with people who care in the
same way you do. It’s a fantastic tool to have in your tool kit.
