To ask what NHS frontline staff think of Breathtaking?

[CloudyYellow]

I have watched all 3 episodes. I worked on the frontline during Covid. I found it very triggering and my fury is back.

@Cuppateafather

Thank you for what you did during covid and since them. Please try to ignore the other poster and take care of yourself 💐

Always good to be clear. So just to clarify, you're an NHS nurse who just wished someone dead on social media?

Yup, got it! 👍

Of all of the staff working tirelessly in the NHS during covid what percentage of them do you think ON THEIR BREAKS made tik tok videos?

Why is this such a bugbear? Do you not have moments of downtime at work? No one can or should work without breaks.

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned on this thread but there is a covid blog from an ICU doctor at James Cook hospital. I followed it every day. Very sobering reading.

have a look, it was started in March 2020 until late 2022.

https://www.nomoresurgeons.com/post/aftermath

I know it's hard, but I think it's best if people try to just ignore the goading. Don't give it the oxygen of attention. Those posters aren't here to ask questions, and even if they were - several kind posters have already answered those questions. They say they don't disbelieve the front line staff, but the content of their questions says otherwise, so they are lying.

What they are here to do is derail the discussion and direct it towards discussing their conspiracy/anti-NHS narrative. Don't give them the satisfaction.

This ALL DAY...won't be watching it either.

Having just watched tonight’s episode, to all those wonderful NHS staff please please ignore the awful goading that two people are trying to do on this thread. They are ignorant at best.

It has been eye opening watching what you all had to endure under the most harrowing circumstances . Whilst we may have read and heard about the lack of PPE and hospitals becoming overwhelmed, it puts it all in more context actually seeing a docu drama of this type. I cannot imagine the stress and fear that so many must have suffered.

I have only watched the first episode so far. It was interesting to watch because I worked in ICU and we were very well provided for - plenty of PPE and ffp2 masks, so stock was never an issue.

I didn't find it triggering, but it did return me to a place which had become a distant memory and that was a weird feeling.

Incidentally, I left general nursing in 2021, largely due to the way nurses went from being idolised by the general public, at the beginning of the pandemic, to almost being vilified and hated. I had been unhappy in general nursing for a while and that was just the icing on the cake for me.

the impact the trauma many suffered has been life changing

they were doing their absolute best to look after and care and often supporting people so they did not die not alone and with some dignity. Their dedication is beyond anything we would ever have expected

my colleagues who worked on the wards (I was in a different front line role very stressful but nothing in comparison) were traumatised and some utterly broken

im embarrassments for those making comments about free coffee or TikTok videos it’s utterly pathetic

Reading this is devastating. I am in NZ, we shut down borders and did not see even a fraction of this horror.... but now we are getting calls to open an inquiry over how our then government handled the Covid response b/c it was apparently too draconian for a small but vocal minority of the population. I wish every one of those idiots saying NZ "overdid" things here could be made to watch Breathtaking and then read every single comment here. As a healthcare colleague from far away, I cannot express my sympathy enough to all of you here.

Relevance? And do you even know what 'gaslight' means? You use the word in all kinds of circumstances.

I can and will answer your questions.
Firstly, the book was not written at that time- she wrote diaries, which then became a book post pandemic.
Secondly, the TikTok dances. To be blunt- they absolutely fucked me off. I was redeployed and my previous area had nurses doing it, because people who should/could have been coming in didn’t. So many areas did have very very ‘quiet’ periods. Minimal patients, therefore for some totally mind numbing reason they thought that doing stupid things was a good idea.
Speaking as a nurse who managed to miss every ‘freebie’ going as it were- I am embarrassed about those videos.
I would also like to add that I never once took part in the whole jump the queue bit. Despite both myself and my DH being essential workers, I just didn’t. Infuriated me no end when those of my previous work place did though. And boasted about it. But what can you do? Sadly some people will always take advantage. I remember pulling someone up who had a fake NHS lanyard and badge on- just so they could queue jump. They made a huge fuss in a supermarket about how they worked in ITU in the hospital I worked at.
there are always some people who make the actual issues look false.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I think you've summed up how a lot of people felt at the time. Thank you for what you - and your DH - did in such tough circumstances.

Whilst I agree with the majority of your post, I would like to add that ‘any old nurse’ can and did look after vented patients.
I was given a half hour training session, then worked supervised for three shifts, and then cared for my own vented patient.
I was not the only one. There were many of us who had never cared for a vented patient before. especially not an adult one! But we did the job and used our skills from other areas. Certain things we couldn’t do- such as filtration and dialysis- but then not could half the ITU nurses as they also weren’t trained at that point.

I’ve just finished it and had to pause it several times because it was bringing back some hideous memories I didn’t realise I’d blocked out. None of the content of the show was embellished or untrue in anyway, if anything it’s mild in comparison to what we went through.

I can recall opening a box of face shields made by children from local schools (as shown in Breathtaking!), all in bright colours and with little notes and drawings from the kids who made them.

My friend was pregnant, her Nan was my patient, dying from Covid, and I vividly remember lying to her Nan that my friend had had her baby so she could die just a little bit happier. I don’t regret that at all. I caught Covid whilst holding the hand of a dying man whose wife had already died from it earlier the same day because their son had stopped in for a cup of tea instead of just delivering their shopping to the doorstep, bringing Covid into their house with him.

I also remember when we had to clear space on the desk on our nurses’ station on the ward for the third framed photo of a staff member we lost.

And still people bang on and on about the TikTok dances! How about directing that anger towards the politicians who sat around in a garden eating and drinking instead of the people who chose to make a silly 30-second video on their break rather than spending that time sobbing in the fucking sluice because the whole world was collapsing around us?!

I binged it one night.

I am not NHS (but have worked for them)

Horrible. I had no idea about paramedics not being allowed to do CPR, or the various staff not being allowed PPE in the various zones.

Again, this was going on in every other country. Italy anyone? The US? Unless you lived in a geographically isolated island like NZ and had the luxury of shutting yourself off 100% then everyone suffered the same.

I'm sorry for those in the red zones but they did get massive amounts of support and resources. I feel more sorry for those in medical wards who didn't get the top grade ppe like ITU or any staff redeployed to assist.

Well said, and I'm so sorry for what you went through.

And still people bang on and on about the TikTok dances! How about directing that anger towards the politicians who sat around in a garden eating and drinking instead of the people who chose to make a silly 30-second video on their break rather than spending that time sobbing in the fucking sluice because the whole world was collapsing around us?!

Well said, I truly don't get people banging on about some nurses who did a dance?!
So bloody what?! It was a hideous time, if it brought a bit of a smile to some faces that's a good thing in my book.

Hi all,
Unfortunately as we have read through this thread we have had to make several deletions for personal attacks and trollhunting. While we understand that feelings are running high, we do need to ask, for the smooth-running of the threads and the site in general, that our talk guidelines are adhered to. Without that, we are in the position of having to remove insulting/attacking/undermining posts that otherwise contain interesting information. Please do bear this in mind as this thread continues.

The issue is that NHS staff were following the exact same guidance the general public were, whether they agreed with it or not. They had to do a lot of things they didn’t want to either, a lot of policies applied to them that they had to enforce and they became the central focus of both peoples wrath and anger and incredible sympathy.

@Jumpingthruhoops do you think the NHS staff were happy about the stay at home/protect the NHS message? They did not invent it or implement it they just came to work and did what they were told to do by their employers, ultimately directed by top governmental policy. This is what I struggle to understand about your point, how you seem to find it hard to separate NHS staff doing what they were told from the concept that NHS staff inventing the policy. They didn’t, and they could get into trouble for not complying so they had no choice but to endorse it. They also endorsed it because it made sense when they were feeling horribly overwhelmed to ask people to stay away if possible, but most NHS staff I’ve ever spoken to (I am one) were also worried about long term ramifications of cancelling surgeries and people staying at home too long. What do you propose they were meant to do if their employer/government put them into this position? They did not have time to stage a revolt, strike or walk out they were saving lives.

I don’t care for the TT dances they were cringy and I would never do it but I can see how people were so cooped up and shut off from the world they did things they wouldn’t usually do

'don’t care for the TT dances they were cringy and I would never do it but I can see how people were so cooped up and shut off from the world they did things they wouldn’t usually do'

They were all over the Internet, they were not isolated cases. Someone should have thought to tell them they were being wildly insensitive and inappropriate posting that crap. Cooped up or not, no excuse.

Sadly, I rather think that despite all of this above, despite Truss and her lunacy, despite the spectacle in Parliament yesterday, despite the Torys being unable to understand the country or the people, despite the increase in knife/violent crime, people trafficking, lack of access to an NHS dentist, not being able to get to see a GP, costs rising on everything while wages being stagnant...
They will be re-elected. Because that's what happened last time

I worked on ICU. Don't know whether I'm ready to watch it yet.
Can I get riled up about a few staff doing silly dances. No I can't. It was a terrifying time. We didn't know if we would be next, no one knew how bad it would or could get. Staff were crying in the changing rooms before shifts, scared and traumatised.
If doing a silly dance in the staff room at break time with their colleagues relieved some of that stress and was a bit of light relief during a dark time then so what.
It's not something I would do, it wasn't the smartest decision to post it online, but I can't get worked up about it.