It’s probably universally known that social care is a demanding sector for all workers involved. It is also an extremely unique one, with everyone who is involved within it having different experience every day. This article will try and find some of those more common trends throughout social care that can be expected.
Firstly, you should be prepared to work all types of hours. Of course, this isn’t the case across all social care jobs, but on the whole, you will be expected to work both nights and days, long and short hours, and potentially working in different locations. For some people this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as they value having a refreshing working atmosphere, one that doesn’t grow stale over time as you remain in the same location, with the same hours, doing the same thing, day in day out.
Secondly, you will have some of the best moments of your life and the worst within social care. There can be some genuinely tough days throughout all types of social care. These can vary from something as simple as dealing with irksome patients, all the way to unexpected deaths (or expected). But this type of career can also have so many positives. If you like to help people, and there’s a hell of a chance you are if you are embarking or even considering a career in social care, then this is a sector where you can see just how far your help can go, and you see a genuine, positive, difference in those that you help.
Thirdly, be prepared to stand your ground both physically and mentally. People who you help throughout social care are often not the most easy going members of society. Often due to their condition, age or just simply their personality, people can be hard to handle throughout social care. This is an area where all the learning in the world can only take you so far. The more you experience certain types of behaviour the better you will be at handling it the next time it arises.
Finally, no matter what, this job will change you as a person. This sounds quite severe, but it really doesn’t have to be. The point is that social care jobs are usually extreme as a definition, dealing with people who are incapacitated, close to the end of their life, or who need an extremely robust network of support. This means that you are going to experience a lot, intensely, over a short period of time, and at the very least will have an effect on you one way or the other.
