“I love my job. I love helping and talking to people.
I was a photographer for 27 years with my own studio and business in Dubai. I was the first professional female photographer there.
When I moved here, I wanted to do something completely different and work in health care. Becoming a Medical Lab Assistant was accidental.
I was at the college one day and came across a classroom full of students. When I asked them about their program, they said they were training to be Lab Assistants. I could immediately picture myself in that job, and knew it was the right thing for me. And I’ve been happy ever since. Even though I had a long career in a different field, I was up for something completely different.
When COVID started, it was scary. The first time I had to take blood from a COVID patient, I was really unsure about doing it. I asked a lot of questions, got a lot of help from people around me about how to do it safely.
Now, it feels totally normal, and I’m completely comfortable drawing blood from a COVID patient. If we have PPE, and we use it correctly, then there’s nothing to be worried about.
Sometimes, I feel even safer in the hospital than in the community because of all the safety procedures we’ve put in place at work, and because we know exactly what we’re dealing with. In the community, though, it’s sometimes hard to be sure how safe people are being.
But as a health care worker, I feel a lot of support in the community. My neighbours know that I work in the hospital, and they often thank me. One of my neighbour’s daughter even made me a nice card to thank me for my work.
The only challenging thing about this pandemic is that sometimes people tend to forget that there are a lot of people who work in health care. In advertisements and on the news, it’s often doctors and nurses who get recognized. But I think this is starting to change.”
- Sherry, Medical Lab Assistant, part of the health care team