Families of NHS workers

[apples24]

What are you planning to do?

DH is a reg and we've concluded that him catching the virus is only a matter of time now.

We're considering starting to observe 2m social distancing at home, I'd sleep in the study, we'd have different bathrooms etc. Just to try to minimise us hitting peak of the infection simultaneously. Even if it's "just" couple of days of high fever and tiredness, that'd make caring for our 1 year old a living hell.

If I'm perfectly honest, I'm also freaking out that he'll be exposed to a crazy viral load and will really be very badly affected. My heart so goes out to all of our healthcare workers.

How others feeling/prepping?

Trying to catch it whilst there are still icu beds.

My sister is frontline in the NHS. I am feeling worried, humble and grateful. To all our NHS staff and their families: thank you for all that is being, and will be asked of you.

DH is not happy about me going to work at the hospital. I’m only admin though, not front line staff. So I could work at home which DH wants me to ask to do. But our Trust doesn’t have the IT capacity to allow everyone who can, to work from home and others have more responsible jobs who need to be prioritised... it’s tricky I admit.
But I don’t think I am more at risk as hospital than the children are at school. So either we all voluntarily self isolate from tomorrow or all carry on as normal.

And yes I echo above. Thank you to all the front line staff who care for us and who have no choice but to carry on x

I’m a GP practice nurse and I’m concerned. I’m pregnant, have a small child, older parents. It’s not really feasible for me to reduce contact as home as I do most of the child care as I’m part time.
I’m just washing my hands, not touching my face etc.
We’re screening all patient appointments and trying to reduce the risk to our patients, which in turn will hopefully protect us as well.

Yup 👍 very true
So puts the missed holidays into perspective

Let’s hope and pray IF they they get it , they fall into the many 10000s of people that feel shit and recover , which we know exist

We are similar to you OP. Planning for us to spend the evening in separate rooms, separate beds, him showering the second he comes home and bleaching the shower after. I am really worried, the plans that are being put in place are terrifying. Doesn't help that I have friends who are telling me people are going overboard, meanwhile his colleagues are being asked to make wills?? I just want everyone to come through unscathed

I am NHS staff and I have resigned myself to the fact that I have just seen my elderly parents for the last time in a while. On one hand I am terrified and don’t want to do this and on the other hand I couldn’t see people not get help when I have the skills to help. I feel sick thinking of what is coming and there is every chance I could get critically ill myself. On a home level I don’t know how it will work, we only have one bathroom. As long as I have the correct PPE I will act as though I haven’t been exposed but if I am exposed I will isolate myself from the rest of the family for 7 days at least.

DH works in a hospital, but we can’t practically do social distancing at home - we don’t have the space for separate sleeping arrangements.

We have checked supplies

Does anyone know if NHS staff who show symptoms get tested immediately to allow for self-isolation for patient/colleague safety? (Unlike general public who'd only get tested when they need hospitalisation).

Would be reassuring to know if DH tested positive, just to really step up isolating measures at home and also to potentially not live the next 4 or 5 months with anxiety, when we could have had it months ago. (If the herd immunity theory pans out to be true).

I'm so angry at DH for not having sorted out proper life insurance and that's his task for Monday. Whatever the premium.

He'd be OK, could clear the mortgage and take a year off work to look after DS, if I died. But I'd have to work full time and would really struggle if he did. It feels awful to have to be thinking about things like this....

Both me and DP work in the nhs in mental health. We have no way to isolate at home. Thankfully we're mostly covered of schools shut since we work opposite shifts, there may be limited chance to sleep after night shifts and some swapping in the car park but we'll muddle through.

If when we end up catching it we'll just have to hope for the best. I bulk buy as standard anyway (dp even has a bug out bag for when the apocalypse starts) so we good for dry/canned supplies if we're stuck in for a while.

I’m married to a med reg too.
I also have asthma. We don’t have space to separate at home so I think if one of us gets it we both get it.
Terrified.

My DH is a nurse in A&E. I work as admin in A&E. We don't have space to isolate as we only have one bathroom. We have stopped our DD’s from going to Cubs etc. We are being far more vigilante about social mixing. We will have to hope for the best!

Paediatrics support staff. I'm isolating myself from my dad who has health Issues and in laws who are in their 80s. Partner wise our house is not big enough to self isolate for weeks as it gets worse. Both healthy, both fight illness well but rarely get ill. Made our peace we will catch it at some point anyway.

Will follow further advice on social distancing etc and minimal public outings as we progress eg just shopping, although I use public transport for work.

@apples24 the guidance for NHS staff is the same as for the public - self isolate for 7 days with cough/fever and then return to work.

I’m not sure if this changes if they come into contact with a patient - I’m admin staff so had a slightly different briefing.

@LittleTopic, my DH's health board has not been great with communications. In all honesty, he's also terrible at retaining that type of information.

Had a death in DH's hospital on a ward where he works. I'm a different branch of medicine and much lower risk.
I'm not distancing myself at present but have contingency plans for if we have to self isolate at home.
I think I'll start from tomorrow with him showering as soon as he is home and Im going to stop handling his dirty clothes
2 adult DD's also now back home from uni etc know they may end up having to look after us

I'm a nurse with asthma, I'm so worried that I'm going to get it. My ds has asthma too, we don't have a big house so I would have to isolate elsewhere. It really is a worry and I don't feel that we are being protected.

no, there's no extra testing for NHS staff
I am a clinician in a patient facing role but not directly caring for people with COVID, although it is almost inevitable I will come into contact with a patient that has it at some point.TBH though DH is a teacher and he is also just as likely to be in contact with it, as are my dc at aschool and uni . so we are not doing anything special. Sensible things like hand washing etc, and would obvs follow gov guidance re self isolation etc but nothing more than anyone else.

oh, should also possibly add I am not going to be visiting my parents who are elderly - I'm worried for my dad who is 86 with pulmonary fibrosis and has already been hospitalised with flu earlier this year so I really, really hope they dont get it and therefor we wont be visiting them for a while. (I do speak on the phone, my sister has sorted them on line shopping deliveries etc and they are fine atm)

@apples24 that’s a shame. Out Trust has organised daily briefings with the messages then sent out via internal comms emails. Are they sending anything in writing that he could send onto you?

I’m a paediatric nurse working with young infants so I’m relying on the train of thought that youngsters (especially babies) don’t get sick with it to keep me safe.

I work on a 25 bedded unit, 6 of those beds are in cubicles and the remaining 19 are in open bays. Of the 6 cubicles we have, only three of them are suitable for potential CV19 patients.

We have about 2-3 babies being admitted every day to our ward with bronchiolitic symptoms and I have no idea how A&E doctors are going to be able to differentiate between standard bronchiolitis and CV19. I do not know how they are going to decide which infants need to be isolated and which ones are safe to be nursed in an open area.

Due to the nature of the patients we see over winter I reckon about 50% of the staff at any one time are run down, having cough/cold symptoms etc so unless they’re going to test us all who knows what we may be transmitting.

I reckon that if any of us so much as cough or sneeze we are going to get a lot of anxious parents thinking their infant is being cared for by a nurse who may be harbouring CV19.

I’m currently off on A/L and due to go back in 6 days and I’m a bit worried about what I’m going to be walking into.

"Does anyone know if NHS staff who show symptoms get tested immediately to allow for self-isolation for patient/colleague safety?" - no. Advice for NHS workers is same as for rest of population, if you have symptoms you self isolate. System would fall apart in a day if contacts also self isolated.

Me and DH both frontline, 1 year old at home and I'm pregnant (first trimester). Worried about us being exposed to high viral load and possibly dying and also any effects on my unborn, Trusts really don't seem to be doing much to protect us.
Think it's inevitable we'll get it but I really don't want to while I'm pregnant or I at least want to make it till I'm much further along. Maybe me and DH should be isolating from eachother more?!
Also wouldn't feel comfortable putting my 1 year old in unfamiliar childcare just because I'm a key worker. Just feel like chaos is coming but I want to protect my family so much

Does anyone know if NHS staff who show symptoms get tested immediately to allow for self-isolation for patient/colleague safety?"

Advice for NHS workers is same as for rest of population, if you have symptoms you self isolate. System would fall apart in a day if contacts also self isolated.

I reckon the NHS would rather test any member of staff who showed symptoms in order to get a definite answer, rather than cope with nurses who don’t have the virus having to take time off work “just in case”.

I dread to think how many nurses get coughs just due to the nature of work we do, I imagine the NHS would go into meltdown if we all started taking a week off when it’s just an innocent cough as opposed to CV19.

There are 50 nurses on my ward and at any one time a lot of us get coughs and we do work with temperature and we just get on with it.

The NHS is under so much pressure already that if hundreds (if not more) of nurses across the country were all off having to take a week off sick for a week when they don’t even have the virus then things are going to be so much worse.