My husband has said I can quit my job if I want to.

[QueenofmyPrinces]

I’m a nurse, obviously anxious about what dangers and nightmares lie ahead, and my DH has just said that I don’t have to go to work if I don’t want to, and he’d rather us live on just one wage if it meant I could be kept safe.

Has anyone else working in hospitals ever felt so nervous about what’s to come that they’d consider leaving?

I do hope everyone making nasty comments to OP in this thread is currently working in front line health and/ or social care or another equally high risk and necessary role. Because not risking themselves but piling a load of pious pressure on a nurse who is frightened in order to bully them into keeping going is an absolute shit.

I don't think anyone is bullying. People are genuinely questioning who is going to look after very sick people if large numbers of health care staff quit their jobs. When elderly people are denied ventilators and only offered palliative care are they going to take their own parent or grandparent home to nurse them in their final days or leave them to die alone in hospital with not enough staff to properly care for them? Will they be able to inject them with drugs to help them breathe and reduce panic, will they be able to adhere to strict infection control measure, sit with them to make sure they keep an oxygen mask on ? I'm genuinely concerned who is going to do this?

I just don't think people are appreciating the enormity of the scale of the problem of what will happen if large numbers of health care staff choose to quit as well as all those off for childcare reasons, self isolating, ill themselves etc. Will Nursing home residents be left to die alone in their beds like in Spain ??

People are genuinely questioning who is going to look after very sick people if large numbers of health care staff quit their jobs

But we aren’t talking about large numbers of nursing.

I’m taking about me. My situation. My fears.

Queen - but every HCP is no doubt feeling the same as you ? I absolutely understand why you want to quit, but every health care professional in the country is feeling the same surely ? How do we know large numbers aren't going to quit ?

@QueenofmyPrinces is there anyone you can talk to in real life? Maybe other nurses you trust, or people you trained with and maybe dont see as much now that could add another perspective? You need to do what is right for you and your family, it's understandable you are scared, and having the option to quit because your DH is supportive is also great. But it does sound like you normally love your job and are no doubt fantastic at it, I am guessing there is no scope to work in a different dept so they keep hold of you? Is there any way to have a tiny bit of time to have a think? It sounds like an impossible situation.

I think actually this is one of the most scary threads I have ever read on mumsnet.

You should quit. So now pension ie money is more important than your family's safety now?

And thank you for the PP who's a police.

The NHS seriously need to be looking at mental health support / counselling for HCP's right now although I guess it will be deemed non priority. Could the RCN/ Unison offer any guidance ?

carrotcake I am in the same job as you. At work we are still behind the curve, awaiting the storm, as it were.

In fact, given the mass cancellation of all routine scanning, we've been sitting around looking at each other for much of our shifts! It's actually weird, going from the usual 'headless chicken' state of play to this in a week!

However, I know the General radiographers are doing chest X-ray after chest X-ray; but between 9-5 yesterday, CT did three ?Covid scans, only. We have 10 positives on our site.

But here's The Biggie: we know we are being lied to regarding PPE.

Two weeks ago I was taught how to don and doff the full 'Ebola' style kit (and cascaded to my unit). I finally got PFFE mask fit tested this week.

But 'the guidance' has had us radiographers going from full Ebola last week to a plastic no-sleeve apron, one pair of nitrile gloves and a non-visor paper mask for positive patients yesterday. Because apparently that's sufficient, now.

Do they think we're idiots?

I am prepared to step up, to do the job I signed up to, etc.

But only with the right PPE.

I think the other issue we are dealing with is the fact that people will die alone. There simply wont be enough of us to sit with those at the end of their life. We will give them the drugs they need then quickly move onto the next person. That's what we are being briefed on just now, our 'regular' patients who we have nursed on and off for years are unlikely to get through this due to covid19 taking priority. It's not a situation any UK nurse signed up for or expected to be in. Even in the shortest of staff days, we have never let a patient die alone. Now it looks like we wont have the choice.

Just to give some balance, it is not all doom and gloom. I share my fears here but I get up and go to work. We are all scared but support each other and manage to have a laugh in all the madness. Nurses do have a unique sense of humour that we would be lost without, it is a magnificent coping strategy we all need just now.

Thank you Iprefergin. What area do you work in?

Hope you got some sleep, I think you need to step away from this thread now because the level of vitriol on MN seems to be rising with the virus. Your situation sounds like a living nightmare, mainly because of the appalling way you are being treated by the people who should have your backs. Find a minute to yourself to think it through. Can you carry on doing this or not? If you can't, then stop. And thank you for all you have been doing

@Babyroobs I work in respiratory x

I don't think anyone is bullying, says someone who goes on to make an emotionally loaded statement aimed at making OP and other hcps feel guilty for having the exact same worries as everyone else and implying that they have a duty to continue in this work.

ok I'm leaving this thread. I didn't intend to make any one feel bad or guilty just genuinely concerned who is going to care for people . Op I apologise.

ScissorsBike

But if you get it, it will prob be mild and fine. It's hardly a death sentence! Unless you are vulnerable?

Presumably you’re an health worker too, or volunteering, Scissors?

As the days creep closer to my next shift my anxiety is on the increase. Our unit is in total chaos, nurses and doctors not being protected/kept safe, and nurses being made to work in situations and environments they haven’t been trained in. We go to work every day not knowing where we’re going to be sent to - more often than not it’s not our own ward - and no idea what is going to be expected of us.

It’s like living in a nightmare that we know is never going to end.

Nurses are poorly paid for what you do. If you don't need the money then don't do anything you don't want to do. It's your life , do what makes you happy and forget anything else. If it's genuine fear and anxiety about the current situation maybe see if a doctor can sign you off for three months , you are only human, it's natural to be scared. Don't feel guilty what so ever. You aren't paid enough to risk your life for others.

Can't imagine how scared you must be. I'm terrified for my kids and extended family and I'm not working in a hospital. You have to do what's right for you and your family. Sadly you are needed at the moment, it will put more pressure on the NHS if you quit but it is your choice and no-one should judge you on it.

The replies on here are shocking.

I guarantee that the people slating you OP are the ones who can wfh and don't have to risk their families or themselves

That includes the nurse earlier who WFH on the frontline. and there is no panic on the whatssap group.
You cannot say wfh is frontline.
And even my work whatssap group are sharing funny things but that doesn't mean to say we aren't all crying every day.

Miljea

We are running out of space. Last week I felt a lot like you. Mild apprehension but okay.
This week it is like a warzone.

We have diverted trauma and are solely covid now. With our shitty aprons and surgical gloves.

We x-rayed over 30 itu positives yesterday.
And every?covid was reported as positive by the appearance of cxr too.

Stay safe and stand your ground about ppe.
We seem to being overlooked as frontline where I am.

Do what you think is best OP. Read all the other threads on here, people debate for pages and pages about the tiniest things, crying with panic over going to the supermarket, wringing their hands over whether to even open the window in case some cv blows in.

But when it comes to nurses it's "meh you'll be right". Of course everyone here is trying to convince you to stay - they want you to treat them! If it's no big deal to get it, why are they so worried about you quitting?

The comparison to soldiers is ridiculous. It's a totally different thing. For one, soldiers have their families safe at home not strapped to their back going in to battle. Whereas OP could potentially infect and kill her family.

Do what you think is best OP. Read all the other threads on here, people debate for pages and pages about the tiniest things, crying with panic over going to the supermarket, wringing their hands over whether to even open the window in case some cv blows in.

Exactly - I wish my biggest worry was how to stay safe in the supermarket or how to stay safe during my daily exercise of walking alone in an empty park

But like you said - we are nurses, a super breed of human who aren’t supposed to care about ourselves or our loved ones and instead just have to shut up and get on with it.