A career move – from nursing to disability assessments

 

If you’re a Healthcare Professional contemplating a change of career, a new role as a Disability Assessor at Advo Health could be just the job for you.

Here Disability Assessor, Mandi Harrison, talks through her experience at Advo, to help you make the decision on this career move.

Prior to joining Advo Health, I worked in care for 16 years. Many of these years were spent working in the NHS as a Respiratory Nurse with a history within Respiratory Intensive Care.

After working for the NHS, I joined Advo Health in August 2023 and started my career here as a Disability Assessor.

My main responsibilities as a Disability Assessor are to guide the claimant through the assessment and evaluate all the evidence to then write an accurate report for them. This report can then be used to advise the case worker at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), so they can make a decision on whether the claimant is eligible for the benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

My previous role as a nurse has helped with my ability to communicate with others when working in my current role as a Disability Assessor. From being in a patient facing role for so many years, I find it very easy to talk with different people and I was worried that in this new role I would become bored whilst working from home. However, I have found that no two assessments are the same and that I learn something new each week which is really enjoyable and rewarding.

One of my biggest challenges in my current role is knowing when to stop talking. I’m a very sociable person at heart and when I first started at Advo Health my assessment calls would take up two hours. I wasn’t sure how I would ever cut them down by an hour. Although, after some practice I learnt how to build a positive rapport with claimants, whilst being able to politely bring them back to the topic at hand.

Becoming a Disability Assessor has been a big career change and has taken some time to settle into, but every week I’m learning which is helping me be more confident in this role. I’m now able to do three assessments a day and I believe I can increase this to four once I gain more experience.

My favourite thing about working for Advo Health is being able to work from home. In my previous roles before joining Advo Health, my work-life balance was very poor, and I missed out on spending time with my family including my son. Now I get to see him every morning and every night, so I get to do bath and bedtime and I even have a little time left over to spend with husband.

If you are looking for a career with a better work-life balance and are ready for a change, then I would recommend the role of a Disability Assessor. The whole team at Advo Health are very supportive and there are always people on hand to provide help when you need it. It can be very challenging, but if you stay focused and listen to all the advice from your managers, you can have a successful career.