OH Practitioner, Anna Harrington joined one of Sarah’s Virtual Bootcamps in 2020 and proved to be one of her star students. Anna shares her experience with an interview with Sarah.
What drove you to join the bootcamp? From a young age I dreamed about having my own business. I was keen to rely on oneself to deliver and make good decisions at the right time. It wasn’t ever about money for me; yes enough to be able to live the life I want, but seeking fortune has no interest for me at all. I am more motivated by enabling people to live happy healthy lives.
My childhood was very interesting, giving plenty of opportunities to develop characteristics, skills, and a mindset to navigate challenging situations and people. It also was a breeding ground for self-doubt. I wanted to address this.
What was your previous role? I went into high dependency/intensive care nursing, transplant, head and neck reconstructive surgery after cancer and trauma. What a great place to learn about good decision making at the right time!
But NHS demands, shifts and ethics of healthcare got the better of me and I needed to look elsewhere for a career and yet use the skills and wisdom I had acquired from caring for people.
I worked for many of the large occupational health providers. I love people and hearing about their lives, what matters to them, and trying to 34
OH TODAY
Summer 2021
work with them to resolve issues.
It is a position of privilege. As a registered nurse the public automatically assigns a certain level of trust in you. Health care professionals’ first motivation is about helping others. This can be a fault when running a business as I can see in myself and my peers that we tend to struggle to find the balance between giving and receiving. This is also evident in clinical care settings where the issue has a very significant impact on health professionals’ own health.
Why did you decide to move into consulting? I tend to have very high standards that I want to be able to deliver. If this is challenged by a work context then I will be uncomfortable. This was one forceful driver for me seeking to be independent and move out of employment into my own business. Freedom for me is very attractive.
I dabbled about seven years ago in being self-employed. It worked well for balancing the family and I did get a lot of reward. But the foundation of fragile self -belief limited me and prevented me from taking it further at that stage.
What transferable skills did you identify would be useful in your new role? My final employed role was as a clinical