Catch up

Well, it's been a while since my last post. And for the biggest part of the time nothing much of interest happened. However in the last few weeks some quite interesting stuff happened. So join me on this awesome adventure!

First about two to three months ago my colleague suggested I talk with my boss about starting up a Buurtzorg like company in the UK. So I did, because working in a hospital is just nothing for me.. It sounds interesting to do all the awesome crazy difficult stuff, but there is such a gap in the care for the elderly people. And I do very much enjoy and feel like I make a difference here. So while working in a hospital could be cool, I don't actually see myself do that again. The pressure from colleagues, time and doctors is just nothing for me.

Basically my boss (Jos de Blok) said that there is interested parties in the UK, but he needs someone to actually set stuff up. So I asked my colleague (Aenne) for help, because I wasn't sure where to start. So she started me off a bit and continuously carries on to support me as well. Mainly by helping with a lot of connections and networking. Which is very awesome :D

So a couple of weeks ago Aenne contacted me that the BBC had contacted Buurtzorg because they wanted to go with one of our district nurses and do an interview with them as well. She asked if I wanted to do that. And of course I did! I regretted it a bit in the morning of the interview because I was just that nervous! But in the end I really enjoyed it!
I got interviewed by Adam Brimelow and I took him with me to one of our clients as well. The day was really cool and ended up being really relaxed, even though I was very nervous in the morning. I also met Jos for the first time, but luckily he wasn't there for the interview itself! Imagine your boss sitting next to you while doing a radio interview.. So scary!
He also took some pictures and told me there would be an internet article about it as well. He also gave me his business card and said to me that when we were setting up a similar company in the UK he'd love to interview me again about that.

And, a couple of weeks ago, on the 27th of May the piece aired and the article got aired on the Health section of BBC news. Sadly the radio piece is only able to be listened too for about a week, so that is now not possible to listen to any more :( However, I do have the article :D
The radio interview was only about 5 minutes long and I was on for about 2 of those 5 minutes. It was really short and quick, but I got so many positive reactions! So many people said they wanted to hear more, so luckily there is the article, that goes a bit more in depth about the whole story! So, here is the article. It's not just about me or Buurtzorg, it's actually about the way we do our district nursing here. It includes Radio Steunkous, a radio station organized by Buurtzorg nurses and and also some notes from one of the biggest health insurance companies in the country.

I didn't even know of this article until yesterday, because I got another email from Aenne asking me if I would be okay with taking a Scottish district nurse with me for a couple of days. She had emailed our company saying she read the article and wanted to see how we manage and deliver care by going with one of Buurtzorg's district nurses. And of course I said I would do it. I don't really care that it's a nurse from Scotland instead of England, at the end of the day it's all in the UK and if something kicks off in Scotland due to it it's only positive sounds and promotion for the rest of the UK as well!

And the last note for today is that in July there will be two guys coming over from the UK. They work for a company that wants to help us set up. So I have already written down some questions for them and it will be really cool to see what they want and what they can offer!