Does anyone find sobbing nurses etc in The News every night, in any way helpful?

[Miljea]

.... or does this footage rapidly lose its impact?

I sort of feel 'Yes, we know, and if the first months of footage failed to shock and awe, this won't!'. If anything, all it does is to numb people.

Ditto the non-contextualised rolling statistics.

Do you think it's an actual strategy, to bombard us with this? If it is, I fear it's not working.

FTR I'm coalface, Covid facing, full PPE NHS, tho not ICU.

But I have got up and personal with Covid that is killing people. Including in ICU.

But I don't think the News' blanket slightly blurry footage of HCPs all kitted up going about their business, interspersed with interviews with sobbing nurses- really helps. I have even heard the 'for God's sake, it's their job' remarks (at the hairdressers, when they were briefly open, TV on).

That person was argued with by her mate, but I do wonder whether too much of this sort of coverage makes people weary of it.

The mortuary shots and the weeping NHS workers have to have an impact on people who have newly tested positive too.

No. I've started to put Gold on between 6 and 7.

It’s such a shame that they’ve had to resort to these shock tactics for the loony non-believers/conspiracy theorists or those that don’t care and are breaking the rules. I wish more news time would be given to holding the government to account, who are massively responsible for our NHS heroes being put in this position.

Mortuary shot.

It’s about time someone took a shot of people like me/places I work in. Mostly people just want to forget we exist.

I do worry about the mental health aspect going forward for our medical staff. I hope they will get support. PTSD will have a big impact i fear.

That said, I deliberately don't watch the footage on hospitals etc, and have pretty much stopped watching the news. This is for my own mental wellbeing. I do think that these sort of reports will stop having an impact very quickly.

I wish more news time would be given to holding the government to account

On the BBC? Whose funding arrangements largely decided by government??

You must be joking ...

When families aren't allowed to be with loved ones at end of life why are film crews and journalists allowed anywhere near a ward or ICU units?

A very fair question, NeedWineNow

Doubtless we'll be told they're also heroes, risking their lives to bring us the truth

Anyone who says “ it’s their job “ is a complete nob. This is an unprecedented occurrence in our lifetime, an ICU nurse is used to working one to one, a ward nurse already works way over paid hours and often with no breaks due to numbers of patients. To suggest that anyone else faces such pressure every day is ridiculous . Try having to phone relatives to tell them their loved one has died. They are cracking under the impossible pressure and the idiots who refuse to conform to scientific advice need reminding every day.

How cynical Puzzledandpissedoff!

Are you insinuating that the BBC isn’t impartial?!

Yes, we all wish. But that was the point.

It’s really sad that people seem to be offended by NHS professionals showing that they are human and in some cases at the edge of coping and often on some very low wages. If you don’t like it - switch off. We all need to take heed that this is the result of a lack of NHS funding for years now. There is no slack and it relies time and again on the goodwill and professionalism of the people who work for it. If we don’t support it, stick up for it and fight for it, it will be gone. It’s already been chipped away at by successive governments and what the news missed this week was a vote in parliament against yes against protecting the NHS from being part of a post Brexit deal with other nations.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/boris-johnson-nhs-privatise-covid-b1790226.html

Proves they are human.

The fall out comes when CV19 is under control

I dont agree, the news isn't meant to be "helpful", it's showing us what's happening in the world from different people's perspectives. The nurses being interviewed have chosen to do that and they have the right to express their views and feelings about what's happening just like anyone else.

Those of you who think it's unnecessary....please come and spend a day with me.

I will introduce you to my colleagues who are living what you see on the tv. The very same images that are annoying you.

We are breaking and you need to see it. It's not just about covid. It's about every cancer operation I've had to cancel because it's too high risk for the patient needing ITU afterwards and we don't have any beds left. Better to let the patient live with cancer than risk them dying due to post op complications and lack of ITU beds.

The reality fucking stinks and we all need to shoulder that burden. Thank your lucky stars that, for you, it's merely in the form of an annoying news item.

A few weeks ago when the hospitals were not allowing TV crews to film inside hospitals we had Covid deniers outside hospitals and online claiming it was all a hoax. There was so many claims of empty hospitals and references to dancing nurses. People needed to see what was happening so that it was real and undeniable.

No, it just makes me angry that the government are so shameless with their manipulation.

@WookieWoo

Those of you who think it's unnecessary....please come and spend a day with me.

I will introduce you to my colleagues who are living what you see on the tv. The very same images that are annoying you.

We are breaking and you need to see it. It's not just about covid. It's about every cancer operation I've had to cancel because it's too high risk for the patient needing ITU afterwards and we don't have any beds left. Better to let the patient live with cancer than risk them dying due to post op complications and lack of ITU beds.

The reality fucking stinks and we all need to shoulder that burden. Thank your lucky stars that, for you, it's merely in the form of an annoying news item.

Absolutely agree. You have support from many of us. Thank you for all you do.

Isn't the repetition only really there for the people who only watch the news while flipping between channels, and might otherwise be ignorant of how bad things have got? Dull as it is for those of us who take proper notice, I think the point of the repeated similar videos is to eventually catch those who take little-to-no notice in the first place. shrug

@southeastdweller

No, it just makes me angry that the government are so shameless with their manipulation.

How could you read the previous two posts and still say that?

Manipulation means bending truth for certain ends. This is laying out the truth. Emotive can be truth, you know.

I think I kind of get what you are saying Miljea , like you I am out there on the coalface, doing my bit in PPE, but I am not in ICU.

And that is important to remember, you and I are not there in ICU.

I have worked all over the NHS, God I have bitched and moaned about other areas and departments and wards over the 20 years I have worked in it, but right now ? Right now I think we need a bit of solidarity to be honest. So someone has a bit of a cry on camera ? It is shit at the minute, but they still turned up for another shit shift, let them have that those 30 seconds, and if it makes someone, anyone change their behaviour for a short while, all the better.

Not sure if sobbing nurses is effective but certainly the news is helping me this week as I called and cancelled thousands of patients for surgery as they better understood why we were cancelling.

@confuseddotcom090

No. If I saw soldiers crying on the battlefield, I'd be thinking "you're in the wrong job, sunshine"

This is no different. You've got to be hard as fuck to hack it in the nhs and have phenomenal stamina because the government certainly doesn't have your back.

Exactly this!

Also frontline HCP

@southeastdweller I’m with you. The government have been manipulating us from the start, including saying “the virus is nothing to worry about”. And as for “they are now laying out the truth”... well, how do we know this? They have done so much much lying, backtracking, bluffing, double and triple bluffing, how do we know this new “laying out the truth” isn’t a massive bluff in itself?

When they later tell us “looooooook! The vaccine is working!”, how will we know what they are hiding then?

There is one truth that the government is constantly reinforcing: politicians lie ALL THE TIME.

When I see it I think omg how do they do it, and they should be getting at least double what they do. I don't know how they keep going. I suspect they will have PTSD.

I think they should publish daily the age of people in hospitals and dying. I think people that don't have elderly relatives don't take it seriously enough. Show how many under fifty are in ICU might give some focus