Hi! My name is Kirsty and I joined Bradford District Care NHS Trust as Research & Library Administrator in November 2020.

Starting a new job can be quite daunting and even more so during the COVID pandemic. The most challenging aspect has been that my colleagues are working from home and therefore, I have not had the opportunity to speak to everyone face-to-face or to listen and learn from conversations that take place in the office. However, my managers have both met me in person to discuss my role and to show me around BDCT. This has been really helpful in understanding what is expected of me in the role and getting a feel of what it is like to work at BDCT.

Both the library team and the research and development team have also been very supportive since I started, and I have been able to attend team meetings and speak to colleague’s one-to-one via Microsoft Teams. I have also had the opportunity to speak with the network of health librarians across the North of England and learn more of the work of the libraries and how important they are within the NHS.

Before this role, I worked for 22 years in the legal profession and in 2017 I decided to retrain and commenced a Psychology degree at the University of Bradford, graduating in May 2020. To have retrained after working in one career for so long was daunting, however, I am looking forward to new challenges and learning new skills in this role.