Welcome to our Life at LetsGetChecked series, a sequence of features that will offer insight into what it’s like to work at LetsGetChecked.
Every fortnight, we will be interviewing a member of our team so you can learn more about how we empower people to live longer, happier lives.
To kick off, here’s five minutes with Leonie Conroy, a Nurse Advisor in our Dublin office.
Leonie was living and working in Australia when she applied for a role at LetsGetChecked. She decided to move back to Ireland when she saw an opportunity to change the direction of her career, from working in a maternity hospital to working in the home health testing industry.
Did you always want a career in the healthcare industry?
I always knew that I wanted to work in healthcare. There are no healthcare professionals in my family. I have three sisters and I saw two of them going through pregnancy and having babies and that was definitely a big factor in my decision. I have always had an interest in women’s health, that is how I ended up going into midwifery but general nursing was also of interest to me.
What are the big differences between working in a hospital and working at LetsGetChecked?
When you’re talking over the phone, people are definitely more open to sharing. I think that people are more likely to ask more questions over the phone as opposed to face to face.
I find that men are more likely to ask questions around the particulars of bowel cancer screening over the phone than they in person which is a step in the right direction.
What is your day to day like working at LetsGetChecked?
Day to day, we advise and support customers, we are available to offer guidance at every point of the process from the moment that a customer orders a test to the delivery of their results.
We explain results to all of our customers, if they have received a normal result but are presenting with symptoms, we guide them through the next steps they should be taking. We also organize prescriptions for those who have had abnormal results for a number of conditions. There is a lot of team work involved so good communication is key.
Do you think there are more opportunities for nurses today than there might have been 10 years ago?
Home health testing didn’t exist 10 years ago, traditionally nursing has always been seen as a vocational role, meaning that you would likely work in a hospital or a physician’s office following your training, with little wiggle room to branch out to other industries.
LetsGetChecked was founded in 2015, it is a new industry, and there aren’t many comparable competitors, this makes the work quite unique. 10 years ago, there would have been no opportunities for the likes of me to be working in this space, so far, so good!
What is your favourite thing about working in the healthcare industry?
I know it sounds so cheesy but being able to help people. I am talking to people at a potentially very worrying, stressful time and people are looking to me for answers that will ultimately guide them and give them better reassurance. It’s nice to be able to make a difference in that way.
What is your favourite thing about working at LetsGetChecked?
I like that I get to use my knowledge to help people. I have never had a routine like the one I do now in my working life and it really does make a difference.
Working in a hospital impacts on your health, there’s not much routine, or scope for planning anything, working in that kind of environment isn't a very sociable job to be honest so working with LetsGetChecked has been a real change in that way.
What advice would you give to someone who is applying for a medical role in LetsGetChecked?
The advice would be don’t feel overwhelmed by the large variety of tests you see on the website.
I applied for the job because I had a big interest in women’s health and sexual health and then I was looking at all of the tests available and I was like “oh my god!”
I was thinking, I don’t know everything about each test or bio-marker. I thought, I might not be up to the challenge, but I have to say there is a lot of support from a training point of view.
There are different levels of medical expertise throughout the company who are there to support your learning and that makes a big difference.
What three personality traits do you think someone who wants to work in the medical team for LetsGetChecked would need?
Oh that’s a hard one, if I had to choose I would say:
● Good communicator
● Compassionate
● Personable
Thinking about your next career move? We are hiring!
