Thankyou but please stop

[MingeofDeath]

Front line NHS worker here. Thank you for your amazing support, we are working unbelievably hard in extremely stressful conditions, so thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.
There is just one teeny little thing though; we are not heroes, just normal people going about our jobs. I don't want to see kids of NHS workers waving their pictures around on telly. I'm finding it a bit much. Please don't fetishise us
I know that AIBU

I am nhs staff currently working from home and not frontline BUT everyone i work with including me have been asked if they're willing to be redeployed and the vast majority have said they are and we are all awaiting the call to the frontline- yes I'm currently working from home with a reduced workload but I'm permanently checking emails and phone messages expecting the call and have no idea when and where that will be which is massively unsettling and nerve wracking. I haven't heard anyone being asked to go on leave we are all on edge and going to be working massively out of our comfort zones- and that's everyone from all different areas and bands.
I am hugely envious of those that can stay at home and have moments where I wish I didn't work where I did. I'll take the praise personally though it does make me think what a scary situation we are facing when people are heaping such praise and I'd happily swap and not be a 'hero' at the moment.

Another NHS frontline worker here. I was humbled by the clapping the first time it happened, since then I find it a bit forced. Like the OP said, we are not heroes (although I do think we are quite brave to deal with Covid-19 patients up close using crap PPE). I would echo the sentiments of @ludicrouslemons , if you really want to help, don't vote for a party who have let the NHS fall to it's knees in recent years.

I worry it's a way to try and guilt people into staying as well. The hero aesthetic plays on the heartstrings and makes it harder to walk away, even if it's the right thing to do. Anyway, the NHS always does an incredible job, pandemic or not, if people are just realising this it shows how much they probably take it for granted.

The clapping is a decoy started by the Tory party as propaganda*
It started in Italy. Saw it on the news long before the woman from London mentioned it

DH is full time frontline, I am volunteer frontline, all the neighbours know and DH finds it mortifying.

Mind you that doesn't stop him queuejumping when we go shopping...

My neighbour is an orthopaedic surgeon, now redeployed on ITU. He was out clapping last Thursday.

A friend is a specialist nurse, now retrained and deployed in ITU. I think of her when I clap, and hope to God she stays safe. The rest of the time, I stay at home to minimise the spread.

Isn’t it more about a human behaviour of belonging? It’s about neighbours isolated joining in something together? People feeling although isolated that they are not alone? (I done week 1, haven’t since).

I clap for all the frontline workers, delivery drivers, bus drivers, retail workers as well as for those at the pointy end of the NHS.

And personally, I think it is a bit heroic, donning your PPE for 12 hours, and knowing you're being exposed to huge viral loads each time you attend your patients; or, in redeployment, working like that way outside your comfort zone.

I stood, in PPE, outside a CT scanner yesterday as my colleague scanned an ICU Covid +ve, chatting to the three other staff as we waited. One was a midwife, the other a nurse from Paed OP, the third a HCA from orthopaedics. All had been on ICU around a week.

The PPE is hot as hell, uncomfortable and claustrophobic; the masks make it hard to breathe, and I wore mine for around an hour with mostly a closed door between me and the patient.

I think what those people are now doing is pretty heroic, actually.

I think instead of all the clapping and whatever, people should take a pledge not to vote for a political party that doesn't make investment in nhs, including pay rises for nhs staff, a central priority.

Excellent advice "Lemons"

I was having a conference call social with friends at around 8pm on Thursday. Two are NHS backroom staff that are essential for making sure that all NHS staff get paid, and trying their best to source what the frontline staff need with what is currently avaliable, plus a frontline HCA undergoing training towards nursing qualification. They all went out so I joined them out in my front garden. Just the way that timing falls with family life, I hadn't been out before, but it was a lovely community moment. More of value of bringing people out of their homes together than any practical measure of gratitude.

It would be interesting to see if our current awareness and gratitude for the NHS translates into long term growth in domestic training and recruitment as its profile and importance is so high at present.

It is for NHS staff to say, not me, and not all staff will feel similar.

But yes, my personal opinion is that there is a fair amount of 'bandwagon / virtue signalling going on in re and that the most important thing by far is to make a lot of noise to try to force the Govt to get adequate PPE NOW (and not blame NHS staff for 'using it inappropriately' FFS.
And, when this eases, to remember to vote for proper investment in the NHS, pay rises for nurses, reasonable hours for junior doctors etc.

I worry that, come election time, with a screwed economy, people will forget their 'heroes' and vote Tory again :(

Yabu - people want to say thankyou let them clap.

There’s this misconception that all Covid patients are in special wards with isolated staff.

It's also in prisons, care homes and people that are covid-19+ are also being discharged from hospital to go home and self isolate with medication.

Here's objective evidence that the most recent Labour government (1997-2010) increased spending in the NHS far more than the the Tory governments either side of it.

fullfact.org/election-2019/nhs-spending-biggest-boost/

It's hypocritical to stand on your doorstep and clap, and then vote for a tory party that has consistently hammered nurses' and support staff's salaries, and has failed even to provide them with basic safety equipment during the current crisis.

@TabbyMumz but nowwearesix actually IS a SALT and knows what’s going on in that dept. It’s not just ICU that are dealing with Covid patients - it really isn’t.

My dp has Covid confirmed and up until yesterday we still had carers and physios coming in. They all put themselves at risk to give my dp some rehab despite the conditions and to support me. It’s not some nicely isolated part of the nhs With everyone else kicking around with nothing to do. It’s made most jobs riskier and harder to do. I will say it again my DB is a mental health nursing assistant and has 6 covid confirmed cases on his unit. They are not in ICU. He is nursing them with little training and no PPE. Sorry to labour the point but you need to think about it some more and just how much nhs staff are at risk outside of ICU.

OP, it doesn't matter what you say or what you want - people will do what THEY want. Their wants will always trump anybody else's.

I hope that those who bang on about it uniting communities and being 'a nice thing for older people' will remember that and continue it long after the virus is controlled. But I doubt it.

I'm cynical about the out-pourings of support because it's been ramped up to pan-banging, fireworks, instruments and I expect, a sign-writing plane very soon... but the funding of NHS meals hasn't met its target yet, nor the PPE provision. Those support measures actually matter.

We should be appreciative of all in frontline jobs, all the time.

Miserable cow

Miserable cow

Fucking hell tallah, whatever you think of the clapping, I hope you or any of your loved ones don't need the help of any of these 'miserable cows' in the coming weeks and months.

Embarrassed for you.

I'm cynical about the out-pourings of support because it's been ramped up to pan-banging, fireworks, instruments and I expect, a sign-writing plane very soon... but the funding of NHS meals hasn't met its target yet, nor the PPE provision. Those support measures actually matter.

Yep. this is the heart of the matter for me.

The majority of us know that it's a small percentage of NHS staff that are actually working in ICU with the Covid patients. The majority of them arent, as it's a massive organisation. But people group it together and put halos on every single NHS worker. It's just not realistic to think they are all saints. Millions of other people, not key workers, are still going to work, still supporting the finance side of the country etc, and we dont put hdlos on them.

This. I'm a nurse.

Let's hope no one will ever vote labour again, but will try to salvage the economy and protect the NHS in the same way.

Don't vote for a party that makes ridiculous promises but doesn't hold on to them, vote for a party who is trying to the best for the economy even if it means some hard decision but a much healthier result in the long term. HTH.

As pinkocelot says I will be clapping on my doorstep on Thursday evening but as well as NHS I am clapping for the care workers who are looking after my mum. The care workers who visit the elderly house bound every day, the supermarket workers and delivery people who ensure we all get fed and so many can stay safe in their homes, public transport workers who ensure that those who are still working get to their places of work.

I am lucky in that I get to do my job from home. I am appreciative of everyone else who keeps the country running whilst I am doing this.

And, yes, it's a good chance to wave and say hello to our neighbours.

StillDumDeDumming that must be very hard for you, your husband and your brother. I hope your husband is doing OK.

I think it is appalling that your brother doesn't have PPE. We all know the system is under pressure but for weeks they have been promising to sort it out/telling us it is sorted out. Saw Alok Sharma on Sky news this morning, he was asked 3 or 4 times is he would apologise to NHS staff. He didn't, just more waffle. Why can't one of them say we are doing our best but we unreservedly apologise to every frontline person who hasn't had the PPE they need. They would go up in my estimations and I think many people would feel the same.

The other thing I have started to notice is every time PPE is mentioned Burberry get first mention for "doing their bit" I'm starting to wonder why Burberry are constantly singled out?

@ChasingRainbows19 I'm paediatrics as well, are you really quiet? We have moved been so quiet. We've got wards closed because of a lack of patients. And no elective surgery either. It's so boring!

Never not moved!

I really don't understand all the Tory bashing on this thread. I've worked for the NHS for 38 years and believe me it wasn't any better when Labour were in power.