zaira borrego

I've been in home care for 15 years, and I truly love what I do. I started as a caregiver with Osborne Home Care after leaving my position as an adjuster for BMW, taking a pay cut so I could have flexible hours while attending nursing school. For 5 years, I worked with very demanding, high-end clients in Rye, doing everything they needed - not just caregiving, but serving as their secretary, helping them maintain their independence even as they worked from home in their 80s and 90s. The clients I cared for were on the board of the Osborne organization, and they pushed me to grow beyond caregiving. I became a scheduling coordinator for about 7 years, then advanced to care coordination manager, where I went out to meet clients, brought in business, networked with assisted living facilities, and provided hands-on training to caregivers. Because I was a caregiver myself, I'm very relatable to our staff - they come to me with financial issues, personal problems, or when they need training with dementia clients, and I jump right in to support them. I also help our nurses with non-clinical tasks and assist with hiring and orientation to give caregivers that personal, relatable touch. This year, I was promoted to Operations Manager. During COVID, I staffed two trauma hospitals - Bronx Lebanon (now Bronx Care) and St. Joseph's in Yonkers - working every weekend for 3 years straight as a nurse scheduler. I contracted COVID 6 times during that period and witnessed the devastating impact firsthand, including having to tell families they couldn't see their loved ones one last time. The hardest part of my current role is matchmaking - making sure we don't just put a body with a client, but that we send the right caregiver who fits their specific needs, whether that's a companion, driver, secretary, or hands-on care. My most notable achievement is going from caregiver to Operations Manager and showing my caregivers that there's growth within our organization.