I'm an ex ITU nurse and I don't want to go back

[MozzchopsThirty]

I know I am totally BU
And I could care for a vented patient
And the guilt is awful

I've been out of there for 8 years and there is talk amongst our management of redeploying staff with ITU experience

But I don't want to go
I don't want to risk my own health and my family's health by working long hours in a stressful environment with not enough protection

For a government that has basically fucked you over for pay and conditions for years but now expects the earth !

Well don’t go then? You still have free will.

Well don’t go, why are you posting to up to sixteen million people to tell them? We don’t need to know.

At the moment

Mozzchops I understand. I haven't nursed an ITU patient since June 2017, but worked in ITU doing audit until January. I feel guilt and relief, because I have a vulnerable DD and a sick mother.

Surely they can't force you?

As above, surely they can’t force you?

It’s your life and your choice and you shouldn’t feel guilty, however as a pp said, probably not going to get the warmest comments on here under this unprecedented situation we’re all in. Don’t shout about it but neither should you feel guilty

As an ex police officer who left because they hated it, if asked under these circumstances I would. I would be doing it to help strapped staff and struggling society. I would leave again ASAP but as a temporary measure I would.
Forget whose asking you op, look at Spain and Italy if it were your family being treated there at the moment would you step up?
Just consider it is all I'm saying, it could be your family struggling to get treatment.

I’m a current ITU nurse and I don’t blame you. But we have the best training and the most PPE in the hospital. You can have a closed circuit ventilated patient or one coughing all over you in an open ward. You’re safer in ITU then anywhere else

Check your contract but you are probably employed to work anywhere in the trust rather then your specific area. I know we are

Well if they shut everything else down you could take annual leave (if it’s still being allowed) or unpaid leave. I think you can ask for redeployment based on health grounds but if there is very little else happening im not sure how viable it is to opt out.

Otherwise, worst case scenario they could put you through formal consultation and change your role through the correct legal process to force you. Or, you could help the countries most vulnerable patients by using a skill that is in demand...

I totally understand your reluctance but I think you are being hugely unreasonable.?

Of course you don't have to.

But you have the rare skills required to save lives in these unprecedented circumstances. Think of what that could mean for your potential patients and their loved ones.

Ex nurse also, you have done your bit for the nhs. As nurses we were used and abused for years, poor pay no appreciation. No pay rises for years now they need us too little too late. Look after your family and yourself. As they say who cares for the careers?
My daughter is currently a nurse and nothing has changed, she is running around like a headless chicken.💐

Can you volunteer to bolster another area that’s critically short?
I’m in a specialist role but been told I need to go frontline, have 2 young children but don’t want to be in a ward with inadequate PPE. Am seriously considering volunteering for the community swabbing team. 3 weeks ago I’d have laughed if anyone had mentioned it to me.
Strange times.

I am not an ITU nurse. Next week I will be. I'm worried sick about how I will cope.

Any hints and tips please?

Don’t feel guilty OP - lots would leave if they could.

I totally understand you, OP. I was on ICU and then transferred to HAC last week and my life was in the hands of angels. Those nurses running ICU, running any ward really, are in a class by themselves- amazing people. But all I could think of during my recovery was how devastatingly worried I felt for them. I was very aware that within a couple of weeks of my leaving, the face of their work will be unrecognizable.
It's not my place to tell you what choice you should make. But you mustn't lose sight of the fact that you do have a choice. I can totally understand why you don't want to get back out there and fight this invisible enemy.

I don't blame you. And I say that as someone currently working in the NHS as a nurse. The reality is - I have been told to treat suspected cases as flu. We ran out of masks, no one seemed to care.

Us HCP's all tend to have a real sense of duty and desire to help, but I think that is being taking advantage of at the moment - we have Dr's speaking out saying they feel like they have been fed to the wolves. We are hearing of doctors dying of it in Italy, and 10% of their cases being healthcare staff.

I feel a deep sense of duty in my job, but my first sense of duty is to keep myself safe and here for my children. Do what its right for you, not what you thin is the right thing. That may sound callous to some but it is how I feel. If the training isn't adequate, the PPE etc not there, don't do it.

Bluntness
Unnecessarily harsh, for someone just needing support.
Could you perhaps channel your very admirable energy into a more constructive area?
You may find that you also benefit emotionally from doing so .

why do people in NHS keep complaining about their working condition and lack of pay rise? The fact is that most people working for public sectors haven't got much pay rise in last ten years. People's living standards keep declining. it's not only for NHS staff.

I don't blame you.

There's almost no hand sanitizer left in my hospital and an inadequate amount of ppe with now clear guidelines about who gets it.

Plus our trust are directing staff to ignore official guidance and continue to come to work if they have symptomatic family members.

It's fucking desperate.

I was vent trained, I can't imagine they would want me back 7 years later. The nhs has changed a lot in that time.

My husband is working at the hospital every day. I don't want to go back but will if I have to, I haven't maintained my pin though.

I am not an ITU nurse. Next week I will be. I'm worried sick about how I will cope

This is awful. I know us nurses are highly trained, but being expected to suddenly be up to ITU standards when they usually have months of extra training/ a long period of supernumerary status is just such an unrealistic expectation being put upon a workforce that is already largely at breaking point.

I'm not a nurse but I know how hard this must be for you. I don't know what I would do in your situation.
However, I was a teacher and no way would I go back, I didn't teach compulsory aged kids, but it's awful what they are expected to do as well.
Awful times though, we need drastic action.

I think they are very shortly going to be trying to recruit ex nurses. I only let my RN registration lapse in October 2019 and now do a completely different job. I may consider going back but have no ITU experience but would consider working on other wards to free up others. They would need to put e up in one of those hotels they keep talking about though as my dh is high risk.