Close to people | Stories from Bethel
From taxi driver to carer
As a taxi driver, Alexandra Hahn learnt early on how to quickly strike up a conversation with different people. When the nursing assistant now scurries across the corridor in the Bethel retirement home Haus Hannah with a smile and warmly greets all the residents, you can tell that she feels right at home in her new job. Thanks in part to her successful lateral entry, the Nazareth Nursing School now offers a one-year training programme for nursing assistants.
"If I had known that I could do that, I would have done it much earlier."
At first glance, Alexandra Hahn's CV had nothing at all in common with the social sector. The now 51-year-old completed her A-levels at Bethel and then began training as an industrial clerk. "Sitting in an office all day, always filling out the same accounting documents - that wasn't for me at all," says Alexandra Hahn looking back. She then studied history and education and worked part-time in her father's taxi company. "I had to find my feet there first. I was driving shifts straight away and had to memorise traffic maps. There was no Google Maps back then."
On one of her transfers for Bethel board member Dr Johanna Will-Armstrong, she became curious about a job at Bethel. "I wanted to continue doing something with people and I already knew social work from carrying bags or accompanying people to doctors' appointments from driving a taxi," says Alexandra Hahn with a smile.
Alexandra Hahn then joined the FlexTeam on a trial basis at the Bethel retirement home Haus Hannah. She liked it so much that she then completed a one-year training programme at Johanneswerk to become a care assistant and successfully graduated this March. "I had great practical instructors who answered my questions straight away and I was allowed to do a lot from day one." Initial questions and doubts, such as whether she could see wounds and blood, quickly disappeared: "I was amazed at myself that this didn't bother me at all."
Help with showering, painting together, drawing up medication schedules: Right from the start, the care assistant has been happy with her varied job at Haus Hannah: "I came in and immediately felt at home. Here, I experience first-hand the positive impact you can have when clients are happy." As luck would have it, Alexandra Hahn is now also caring for some of the deaconesses she used to transport in a taxi. She only regrets one thing about her decision to make a career change to become a care assistant: "If I had known that I could do it, I would have done it much earlier."
Text: Simon Steinberg | Photos: Matthias Cremer
This story simply told
Alexandra Hahn was a taxi driver for many years. Then she wanted to try something new. So she trained as a care assistant. Today she works at Bethel. She supports elderly people at Haus Hannah.
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Here you will find an overview of all Bethel services for the elderly. For further information, you will be redirected to the websites of the respective programmes and services.
Offers & services
Life means getting older. And who wouldn't want to live as independently as possible in old age - but with the help that is needed? This includes treating the elderly with dignity and respect. Bethel is committed to providing flexible services: outpatient care services, short-term and day care, assisted living and care centres. Counselling centres, geriatric psychiatry and geriatric medicine complete the range of assistance on offer. Bethel offers inpatient and outpatient hospice work for people at the end of their lives.
