Hazifa and Ebony

Hazifa’s Story

Hazifa joined Health Education England Supported Internship course, Project Choice in 2018. Originally she was not sure what she wanted to do, and tried out different placements over the one year Supported Internship course. She worked in an administration role at the hospital and in a nursery, however she really enjoyed the role as Ward Hostess at her local hospital.

Hazifa says that her favourite part of her job is speaking to the patients on the ward and working with the other NHS Staff. They are all so supportive and help her when she needs it.

I like how every day is different and that I work in different wards so get to meet different people.

There were no job vacancies on completing her supported internship, so Hazifa continued to volunteer as a Ward Hostess. This helped her to maintain and learn new skills following the end of her managed placements.

When the pandemic began, Hazifa continued to work in her volunteer role, wearing and following full PPE and NHS guidelines in the hospital. Ann, also works in the ward, and stated that Hazifa was “very good during the pandemic. Myself and some other staff in the team were the ones that put Hazifa forward for the position when it became available. It was really great seeing how Hazifa progressed into the job.”

Hazifa applied and was successful in gaining paid employment on a 20 hour contract with the hospital in May 2019. Ann was so thrilled to be there on the day Hazifa was officially offered a full time job (see picture below). When starting at the NHS Hazifa remembers participating in staff training and meeting other new staff, which she really enjoyed.

As part of the role, Hazifa takes the menu’s to patients, takes their orders, collates the orders for the kitchen, then serves food to the patients when they are ready. Hazifa knows when to ask for help, but does not need as much direction now that she is used to the role. The only adjustments that Hazifa requires is some assistance at the start of her shift to go through the menues to ensure she understands them correctly. 

She is able to adjust between different environments and she has now learnt which wards are busier and which will take more time. Nicola from the Catering department said “Hazifa is always willing to help, always takes extra shifts to support the team, and is always getting good feedback and is super helpful.”

Ann said that supporting Hazifa and the other Interns on the ward was a team effort, and the whole team worked with the Inters. She said that “In some ways the Interns have strengthened our team. It makes staff realise and understand their role better as they support the Inters.”

Hazifa stated that she likes her job a lot and she has no plans to find a new job and would like to continue to work for the NHS for as long as she can.

Ebony’s Story

Ebony started with Project Choice in 2016. As part of her Supported Internship, Ebony completed 3 placements, in 2 departments of the North Tee’s Hospital. Her first placement was a Ward Hostess, talking with patients, taking food orders and serving food at meal times. Ebony tried working in Health Care however did not enjoy the cleaning aspect of the role.

Ebony returned to her Ward hostess role for her final placement before applying for a part time, 18 hour contract with the Hospital. Project Choice and the ward staff supported Ebony with her application and interview preparation. Ebony said that she could not have applied for the job without Project Choice support. Ebony is very confident with her job however she does struggle understand written words and process large pieces of information. In spite of this barrier, Ebony was successful in receiving the paid role and has worked at the hospital since.

I like my job because I get to talk to people and I get paid!.

Ebony would like to learn more and maybe find a different job in future, but for now she is very happy in her role. She likes the staff, she likes that she has a routine and does not need to ask for help anymore which makes her feel more independent.