Black History Month
Black History Month
Feature
Why return to practice ?
Roxanne Mitchell-Nembhard shares her return to practice journey , in the hope it might encourage anyone hesitant , not to be fearful about the process , as support is out there .
W hen I heard about the Caribbean OT Network , I was intrigued , as it ’ s rare to see something specific to the Caribbean . Living and working in Scotland , having moved from the Southeast of England with my family in the late 2000s , I often found it was my Caribbean heritage I had to explain . So , this was such a delight , in terms of representation ( OTnews , July 2023 , page 6 ).
I am of Trinidadian and Guyanese heritage . Once qualified with a BSc ( Honours ) in Occupational Therapy , I worked as an OT in Nottingham , Hertfordshire and London for NHS trusts over several years . This was across a range of posts with increasing levels of seniority , line management and team leadership responsibility .
My husband took a job abroad and I travelled with him . Towards the end of that time , we started a family , and when we returned to the UK , I decided to focus on being a ‘ stay-at-home ’ mum . This meant that I would not be able to demonstrate evidence of continued practice and I therefore needed to leave the Health and Care Professions Council ’ s ( HCPC ) register .
I always had the intention of returning to practice , but the timing was never right . We then moved from London to Scotland , where we settled , so I started to think about registration again .
When my youngest child began primary school , I decided this was the time to return to practice on a part-time basis to balance home life and work . The problem was , I just didn ’ t know where to start , or where to get further information . To be honest , it all felt daunting and I kept putting it off .
The first step
RCOT provided me with valuable advice and support and I attended a return to practice study day . This was really usefull in providing a comprehensive overview of the process , the requirements , and information on the choices that were available to me in terms of suitable activities to undertake to fulfil them . It was also a good opportunity to meet other returnees .
Roxanne Mitchell-Nembhard
The next step
Once I had the information , I sought help from RCOT on finding suitable avenues to secure the required number of hours that I needed to re-join the HCPC register . Due to my extended career break , this was 30 days of clinical supervision and 30 days of non-clinical supervision .
I had the challenge of obtaining a suitable placement to complete my supervised hours and I did struggle . I became overwhelmed again and put it off again for another year .
RCOT again stepped in with support and I was then contacted by the occupational therapy professional lead for my local NHS Board . She convinced me that it was possible and would provide supervisors to support me on my return to practice journey .
The process of returning
I was assigned a supervisor through my professional lead , who was very supportive and kept encouraging and reminding me that the process was achievable .
Initially I did the required hours on a self-funded voluntary basis , shadowing different areas of occupational therapy . This was to build up my confidence , be aware of best practice and update my OT core skills .
I found clinical supervision , with continuous clinical reasoning , very helpful in building up my confidence so that I could successfully return as an OT .
The benefits of being self-funded was that I could set my own hours allowing me to maintain a work-life balance , as I still had a young family . I wanted to maintain school hours and part-time working to complete the non-clinical hours . This could be very challenging at times , but I did my best to maintain a regular structured routine .
I created a daily chart for each month to record all my activity . This really encouraged me by recording my time in an excel document , so I could see that the finishing line was getting closer . I also did an online record keeping course for updating and feeling confident with documentation .
26 OTnews October 2023