By Alicia Djukic
Alicia Djukic, is a Medical PA with 10 year’s experience, she has worked both in the Private Sector and NHS which is where she is currently based.
How I got started……
It certainly seems like a long time ago.
I've always been office based whether it is was working for a TV Rental Company or CEO of a Construction Company but I felt I had more to offer and needed something I could really sink my teeth into. Having always had an interest in the medical field I began to apply for Medical PA roles at hospitals in and around my local area, but I was not having much luck and I just could not work out why! It finally dawned on me that it was possibly because of the one skill I was lacking, audio typing. Unfortunately courses in this area were not readily available to say the least.
So my next step was to try and get my foot in the door by taking an Administrators post within a Cardiology Department in an NHS hospital. I did get the job and this really helped with my medical terminology, which was a big bonus.
After spending about twelve months in this role the hospital I was based at started to offer a work based training programme for wannabe Medical Secretaries / PA’s. It involved working alongside very experienced Senior Medical Secretaries for four to six months, and learning the job from scratch and flitting between specialties, which was tough at the beginning. We covered everything from basic administrative skills such as taking calls, faxing, dealing with post, booking appointments and the task in question: 'learning to audio type', which was a job in itself - listening, typing and the dreaded earphones but once you get used to them it’s like riding a bike.
Over a six month period, I worked in Cardiology, Rheumatology, General Medicine, Neurology, Urology, General Surgery and Gynaecology giving me the opportunity to gain different sets of knowledge in each area. Having worked very closely with the Consultant Urologist’s PA, she decided to take up another post whilst I was training with her so in a very easy manoeuvre I took over her post once my training finished and as they say the rest is history.
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