NHSers - how are we doing / feeling? Calm before the storm?

[treebarking]

I'm in a low incidence area but even our covid ward has reopened with patients. No one on ITU but starting to see sicker covid patients coming in. Bigger regional hospital has a full unit already. No reduction in general admissions and if anything, they are more complex. Services were slowly getting back to normal, working through waiting lists etc but lags of 6 months for input. Infrastructure slowly going back to normal. Massive staff shortages as loads off with mental health sickness absence. Heating has gone on...hating mask life etc.

Today everyone suddenly realised that we might be going back to March or something similar. All the covid area processes again alongside running an acute service for non covid patients (as everyone won't stay at home this time round). Incorporating covid into the running of the hospital etc. Everyone has been in good spirits but today....really flat. Not sure we've got enough reserves to do it again.

We're therapies btw so go all over the hospital rather than ward based.

How is everyone else doing? Does anyone know what the plan is for the nightingales? 🤷‍♀️

@Hobnobsandbroomstick I feel exactly the same way but I will probably take flexi retirement rather than leave nursing altogether. I'm 54 so could potentially work 1-2 days a week and get an okayish pension too. I work in ICU and found the whole thing so stressful, physically and mentally, whereas
alot of the younger ones enjoyed the drama so loads of photos on social media, excited discussions etc. Unusually for my age I'm only a senior band 5 so alot of my peer group really don't experience how physically exhausting it is as they don't get involved in patient care.
To compound it all our unit has merged with the high dependency unit, so building work has started and also the pace is much faster, it's a real culture shock.

ICU therapist here but on maternity leave during the first wave (baby born the day of lockdown). Will be returning in January and worried about the lack of experience I have from not working during the first wave and feeling like people will presume knowledge which I don't have. Also increasingly pissed off with my NHS colleagues talking about how "lucky" I was not to be at work this year, as if I've just been swanning around having a great time on mat leave when in reality at times I'd rather have been at work. This is my first and only baby and we weren't able to introduce her to close family until 4 months old and still haven't introduced her to other important family due to local lockdowns and travel restrictions. Trying to find a nursery place is a nightmare and we've had absolutely zero support from health visitors which I find hard to deal with as a fellow NHS worker.

It's weird being on both sides at the same time.

I meant to add: if anyone does have colleagues who have been away on maternity leave this year please don't presume that they have had an easy ride. I am hugely grateful to those that have been working (particularly the midwives/labour ward staff we have had direct contact with) and want to return to play my part.

DH is a paramedic, worked night last night and said it was very quiet, he hardly left the station - which is VERY unusual, it was like that during the height of the pandemic, looks like the public are weary of calling for an ambulance again.

See in our trust a/e was rammed yesterday. The feeling was that people are no longer concerned so much about the virus so not staying away like during the first wave. Consequently it’s a massive logistical problem separating the two kinds of patient, covid and non covid. Beds are scarce either way.

@Rawrsome13

ICU therapist here but on maternity leave during the first wave (baby born the day of lockdown). Will be returning in January and worried about the lack of experience I have from not working during the first wave and feeling like people will presume knowledge which I don't have. Also increasingly pissed off with my NHS colleagues talking about how "lucky" I was not to be at work this year, as if I've just been swanning around having a great time on mat leave when in reality at times I'd rather have been at work. This is my first and only baby and we weren't able to introduce her to close family until 4 months old and still haven't introduced her to other important family due to local lockdowns and travel restrictions. Trying to find a nursery place is a nightmare and we've had absolutely zero support from health visitors which I find hard to deal with as a fellow NHS worker.

It's weird being on both sides at the same time.

I often thank my lucky stars that we didn’t have our kids during a pandemic. It must have been so hard especially with your first, I would have been lost without the support I received. Take care.

I'm so sorry and enraged at your treatment - I thank you for risking your life to save others.

We did our best buying and supplying PPE for those in need, along with 3d printing visors. Can I ask what the supply is like now - I will of course speak to my contacts - but would like feedback from you all? I'm not sure whether we can help to the same extent, due to funds - but will help where possible.

I'm exhausted and don't want to do it all again.

Nurse in acute medicine. Working in a covid unit. Utterly broken. Teary, drained comfort eating and I'm not sure I can cope with this. We already have positive patients in. We havent had a week with no positive patients. So haven't really had a chance to breathe.

@May09Bump

I'm so sorry and enraged at your treatment - I thank you for risking your life to save others.

We did our best buying and supplying PPE for those in need, along with 3d printing visors. Can I ask what the supply is like now - I will of course speak to my contacts - but would like feedback from you all? I'm not sure whether we can help to the same extent, due to funds - but will help where possible.

I think maybe care/nursing homes might still require some support. I think most Trusts probably have enough ppe for the time being.

Thank you

I am not really recovered from the first wave, not really. I am pretty tired.

Feeling of impending dread.
How can things have escalated again so quickly ? ( That’s a philosophical how as opposed to a scientific one)

We can do this.
Can’t we?

Icu nurse. Just felt like life was returning to some semblance of normality and cases have risen dramatically in our area. I cant face it again I just can't. I,m dreading this winter. we usual struggle at points during the winter but there are periods of respite to recharge but i just cant see that happening this winter. I could cry honestly.

I'm just exhausted with it all. My amazing colleaque and I have done 4.5 peoples jobs for 6 months. We have weathered 2 outbreaks, sent our children away moved out and worked countless extra hours. Outside of work I have seen only 5 people apart from my ever tolerant family.
I cant do it again my resilience bucket is empty.
I really cant do it again

Medical SHO here (regular poster but name changed as potentially outing combined with my previous posts).
Feeling very apprehensive. Dreading the winter to come. I worked in A&E during peak COVID and felt relatively sheltered actually, as though patients were generally sicker, the numbers coming through the doors were much reduced, so work felt manageable. Not expecting the winter to be the same in the slightest.

Also very much anticipating not seeing my parents for the next 6 months or so which is heartbreaking.

Well I think we're pretty screwed tbh, admissions going up, rest of the hospital still full, track and trace is screwing up the staffing and there's feck all support from the centre but ......we are the NHS, we've never ever been resourced properly, we've never had enough people or enough time but we always kept going and this winter will be no different.
Take care of yourselves and keep on going. It's all we can do.

There’s an air of panic 😢 we’ve not really recovered from the loss of colleagues, resilience is low I fear.

I'm a midwife and petrified. The sense of anxiety is rising as fast as the admissions of positive patients. I left home during lockdown to protect shielding DH leaving DD with him. I cant do it again. I loved my job, I struggle to reconcile the risk it means to my family now. I feel angry that people aren't taking it seriously, and that staff and the birth partners aren't being swabbed. I am beyond appalled with how many times I have heard people (patients, not my colleagues) say "the vulnerable were going to die sooner anyway" whilst I bite my tongue. When I ask a birth partner to keep their mask on as per hospital policy and they keep taking it off, it makes it more difficult to keep working and taking the risk home.

@ Mcquillam huge hugs to you i agree i love being a nurse but right now agree that the risks to my loved ones and my mental health are too high.
I swing between a moral sense of needing to see it through and a overwhelming need to hide under my duvet.
hopefully I manage the first.
everytime a walk past a pub full of people i feel a deep sense of anger. come on all you people who cant manage without the pub if we are all sensible we stand a chance. follow the guidelines for your selves your loved ones and the poor old nhs staff.

Re: PPE

The PM stated the other day that we have 4 months supply of PPE and that 70% of it is now British-manfactured as opposed to 1% at the beginning of the pandemic. So that should definitely help as, presumably, the manufacturers will just keep on manufacturing it on an ongoing basis.

Completely ran out of adrenaline. So much HR to do with staff risk assessments and adjusted duties whilst maintaining business continuity. Daily service de-escalation meetings and prioritisation. It's not even started yet but it's disheartening thinking we are now scaling back our service yet again, which took so much work in the first wave.

Can I check something for those of you who care for trache pts outside ICU. Does your guidance state that even if you’re not actively carrying out AGP’s then you assume Covid+ve with regards level of PPE?

Yes.
We do even when cpap .
Not all patients are swabbed for certain procedures. Which is daft especially a bronchoscopy

Can I ask what, if anything, would help you and your teams get through the next few months and come out OK? I'm thinking about what might make a difference in terms of staff support and wellbeing for you.