This month we are pleased to be celebrating the personal achievements and hard work of Occupational Therapist, Claire from Essex.

As well as working hard in in-patient stroke and early support discharge, Claire also manages to find the time to run her own successful baking business as well as study to become a life coach. Her time management skills are impeccable!

‘She is a very personable and caring individual. Cake baking is her passion and she has set up her own business teaching people to bake in her spare time. She has made some amazing cakes which definitely look too good to eat!’, her Recruitment Consultant Karen commented.

Get to know more about Claire…

Personal achievements within the role? I am 3 months into the role and it’s a great team to work with. I have just started to work with one of the therapy assistants to set up a gardening group. I am also providing a training session to the team on Apraxia. I am really interested in Mindfulness too so hoping there will be some scope to do some mindfulness with the patients.

What do you enjoy about being a locum? I really like the flexibility of being a locum, meeting lots of different people and learning more about myself in terms of how adaptable I can be. I think being a locum has brought me out of my shell and it’s also a great way to share and pass on knowledge and ideas to various teams.

Most memorable moment within your career? There are many but one to mention is coming 2nd in a therapy bake off competition. Baking is my passion and so I love it if I have a patient who has a goal to get back to baking. To me, baking is a way to be creative and practise mindfulness. There is always a way to bring in baking within the OT role. For example, in a previous role we only had a microwave so developed recipes around this including chocolate cake in a mug. The patient’s found it very interesting and put a smile on their faces.

If you were stranded on a desert island what 3 items would you take?
1.) Tea
2.) Digestives
3.) Journal