How the Skills We’ve learnt Have Prepared us For Fostering
The skills and experiences you’ve picked up throughout your career and life experiences can make an incredible impact to you as a foster carer, and by extension will make a profound impact to the lives of young people you will care for.
There are many professions that have an obvious link to fostering, such as working in the care sector, or any work that involves caring for young people. However, there are plenty of other routes through which valuable skills and experiences can be learnt which will serve you well as a foster carer. Whether it is from caring for family members, or via careers that taught you skills in compassion, communication and organisation, there are endless ways from which you will have developed skills to make you a better foster carer.
We spoke to two of our foster carers, Amanda and Jenilee, about how their experiences in life helped them when they became foster carers.
“Being in a caring profession gives you insight into different situations and how to deal with them effectively. Working within a multidisciplinary environment is relevant in both nursing and foster care. There are many skills I think are transferrable from nursing to fostering – I know to deal with what’s important first and not to sweat over the small stuff. Being concerned for people’s wellbeing and having knowledge of disabilities. Understanding and compassion is key.
The most rewarding part of fostering for me is witnessing the children feeling more secure and gaining trust in adults around them. Creating a positive environment and therapeutic space. I would absolutely recommend fostering as a fulfilling career.”
Amanda, TACT Foster Carer
“Caring for children has always been something I am passionate about. Doing my job made me know I could offer so much and give these children what they need and deserve.
I think working alongside safeguarding and having to complete various training has given me an insight as to what some of these wonderful children have to go through. I think having the caring side of wanting to always help is just built in you, it can’t be taught – so my job and fostering goes hand in hand with doing that.
Being caring, compassionate and having patience is so important and relatable to both being at work as a nurse and fostering. Having an individual approach to patients at work as well as to the children in care helps to ensure everyone is having their own individual needs met.
Seeing the development in the children and the small milestones are massive, it’s so special to see. My advice to other nurses and healthcare professionals is to just remember why you chose to be a nurse or work in the NHS…to care and to give back and what better way to do so than helping guide and shape a young person’s future.”
Jenilee, TACT Foster Carer
Read more about transferable skills in fostering here.