As she marks her 10th anniversary this November working for Classic LifeCare, Client Care Coordinator Kelsey Koehn reflects on a meaningful decade and a particularly challenging year.
“I’m still here at Classic because it’s not just a job, it’s a family,” says Kelsey. “I get up to go to work and I don’t mind. The people I work with are the best part of the job.”
Kelsey worked in scheduling and payroll for a long-term care facility prior to her role with Classic LifeCare. She met Britney Didier-Shaw, Classic’s Regional Leader – Alberta, while Britney was marketing at the facility. Kelsey got to know Classic more over the next few years while using Classic as a relief for covering shifts at the facility.
When asked if she knew anyone looking for a scheduling job, Kelsey submitted her resume to Classic and the rest is history.
She recently took on some payroll and invoicing duties at Classic to compliment her coordinating duties, which adds more variety and challenge to her role.
Kelsey says the biggest challenge of being a Client Care Coordinator is the defeat you feel when you schedule care for a client and something falls apart. Scheduling can be a thankless job because there is so much behind-the-scenes work that goes into it. Sometimes she has to make a dozen phone calls to fill a shift and it might fall apart in the last minute.
On the other hand, she said the best part of coordinating is when everything lines up and she knows the clients and the employees will be happy with the fit.
“When everyone is happy and a client is telling me, ‘I love my caregiver,’ then I feel really good about the job I did.”
This year has been particularly challenging for Kelsey because of an accident she is still recovering from.
On May 6, she tripped and fell on the sidewalk. She quickly tried to get up and realized she had seriously damaged her ankle.
Her friends called 9-1-1 and she was taken to emergency, where she was told she would need surgery as soon as possible. Her ankle suffered three breaks and a dislocation, which required eight pins, a plate and a rod to put it back together.
She couldn’t walk until the end of June and was off work while she let her body heal from the ordeal.
“I don’t know what I would have done without my parents,” says Kelsey, wiping tears from her eyes. “Especially my mom. I really couldn’t do anything on my own and I am so grateful my parents rushed to help me when I called them from the hospital at 4am.”
She said learning to walk again is tougher than it seems and there are a lot of tears still. Going downstairs is a great challenge.
The experience has given her perspective on how helpless a person can feel when they can’t do seemingly simple tasks by themselves, like bathing and laundry. She says she appreciates more than ever the important work Health Care Workers do for Classic LifeCare’s clients every day.
When Kelsey isn’t working or recovering from trauma, she likes going for dinners with her friends, drinking wine and reading.
“I am determined to walk without an air cast at all and get back to normal as soon as possible,” she smiles. “My friend ‘blinged out’ my cane so at least I can do it in style.”
