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.

@Billie18

I counted 7 sobbing female NHS staff in the documentary style lead item on the BBC news tonight. Including the head of the hospital mortuary who reported having to deal with a never ending supply of dead bodies (I am sorry but this prompted the sort of dark humor laugh that escapes when you know it shouldn't). Last night they also showed footage of gravediggers digging muddy graves. Tonight a couple of staff counting beds occupied as in 7,8,9 going through the numbers for emphasis. Only two patients were described in any way and both were described in terms of their age. One was "mid twenties" and the other was 28. The lead consultant did a tearful (scripted ?) piece to camera urging people to social distance or risk the consequences.

I felt that those being filmed were being used to put together a story that the news editors had decided to run with. Rather than "news" it was a cut and paste film attempting to provoke emotion and scare people.

I saw that too. I'm frontline HCP and I find it cringeworthy. It was the senior mortician , when asked " Is it like a conveyerbelt", and she said "yes" that made me snort, " Well it always was", COVID or no.... Then she started crying and I found myself saying, " But she's never even seen them, they're laid out! I can understand if you've been their doctor or nursed them, but really, the mortician?. Its like there is a prurience to all this. It feels like everyone interviewed has been primed to convey one of several issues, whether it is to try and convince the COVID deniers, or make the public grateful... It's emotional manipulation, not the robust but sensitive reporting that it should be.

Sorry for double post, my wifi is playing silly buggers.

I did want to add, though, that at least these films being shown means that frontline (especially ICU) staff can see that there are truthful reports being put out to counteract the unending "Covid is a hoax, my local hospital is empty" misinformation on social media.

@Katie517

It has no impact on me whatsoever it’s purely being put out to increase compliance and provoke fear. The people talking on talk radio this morning and on their twitter feed yesterday about the devastating impact of lockdowns however did have an impact. I have been wanting to hear more of this in the media it’s just a shame the MSM won’t report such stories. Lockdowns are literally killing people both physically and mentally and people need to start realizing that, it’s not all baking banana bread and doing zoom quizzes in a warm financially stable household.

Absolutely.

I know of 3 attempted suicides in twenty somethings this month alone. 1 is now very very seriously ill.

@BeforetheFlood

It is manipulative, but then it's also pretty standard. As said that doesn't mean that none of this is happening, just that they'll always go for a pre-determined angle and source material to suit

Given that the report was reminding us how hard it is for these workers there's a shit ton of irony in a BBC film crew showing up and causing disruption to a stressful working day by poking them with banal questions about how sad they are until they get an emotional rise.

Surely if those workers are blunt, then their work is cut down in future weeks? People will get it that they cannot go out socialising in groups of 9 or having big weddings or whatever.

@DobbyTheHouseElk

I didn’t need to see that tonight. I’m in a bad mental health situation now. Was on the edge, that tipped me over. I’m not breaking rules. I’ve become a hermit.

Yes people are getting desensitised.

The people who don't care for the rules made their minds up long ago. This kind of stuff isn't going to change their behaviour now - plus they're simply not the kind of people that would be watching this. Also has little effect on those who have a family to feed and feel forced to work and break rules/dont self isolate.

The rest of us who have been adhering to the rules by the book don't need to see it. We get it.

Nevertheless, its important to tell the stories.

@Calmandmeasured1

I have only noticed this once and that was on this evening's BBC news. I know that the staff have to be professional and can't be overly emotional as they wouldn't otherwise be able to do their job. However, although I was very moved by the nurse who was so upset, in one way, I was pleased that she was deeply affected too because it showed her humanity. I have heard others talk about the situation but not see such open emotion. It made me feel that if my relatives were in hospital she would do her absolute best for them and would envelop then with care.

What you've said is touching.

There's not a HCP who hadn't been 'got to' by a patient, now and then, because yes, we're 'human'.

But choosing the sobber over the pragmatist is an interesting take! (' I know she'd care for me!' - or go off on 3 months' stress...)

Furthermore, you're promulgating the 'Nurse as selfless hero' meme; the one that had MN suggesting nursing was a vocation so how dare they strike, how (MN) vile 😉 in 2013; and in 2008 had half of MN blaming their pensions for the financial crash.

I think some HCPs are being a bit played, if I'm honest.

@Alternista

For me: I’ve been working from home for months, home schooling kids as well now. Get food etc delivered, live rurally so Covid just seems a bit remote and irrelevant in the day to day at times. I haven’t broken the rules at all but I have found myself playing it all down in my mind a bit lately. Then I watched the footage on the BBC tonight and was newly appalled and reminded how seriously we need to take it.

So for me, it worked. And hopefully the more people like me it works for, the less strain we put critical workers like you under

This is it for me too. Doing what I’m asked but means the reality is a bit detached and seeing it keeps it fresh. It also makes me appreciate that however hard I’m finding it (lonely, financial, work stress etc) the nurses on the front line (as well as many others) are in unbearable situations which are destroying their health and mental resilience. It’s not pleasant to watch which is why you will get the hard liners but it is raw and truthful.

@Remmy123

It's a stark contrast to them doing tik tok dances last time!

And in that, you were as manipulated then as you are being now.

Not really sure where I lie on the nurses crying on tv thing, it did move me but each to their own but cant we stop peddling the 'it's their job, they should have a thick skin by now' nonsense? I don't know a single nurse who hasn't cried on a shift at some point in their career.
My husbands bad day at work? Spilling lunch down him and saying something wrong during a meeting. My bad day at work? Physcially removing a ligature from a patients neck then rescusitating him, come out the room and straight on to caring for my 5 other acutely unwell patients for the next 11 hours. I'm not Covid but these people are dealing with unexpected deaths almost every shift, an unexpected death is heartbreaking and not an every day thing. The minute they stop getting bothered by it they probably shouldn't be nursing anymore.

I agree that I don’t think these reports are that helpful and they have the potential to be counterproductive. I think it’s important that we are informed of what’s going on though so I’m not sure what’s the best way to do that. I suspect we are all just going about our lives trying to survive as best as we can at the moment, and can’t do much more than that. In the same way as I don’t habitually remind myself of starving children in Yemen, for the sake of my own health I don’t really have space for this, and it goes in the same category.

It is full on and difficult to watch. I find it genuinely upsetting seeing the problems in hospitals and what the staff are all dealing with. It makes me feel grateful to the people in those jobs, and relief that I am able to stay at home with my family, as DH and I both work from home. It kind of renews that feeling in me every time I see the news, or most times, at least. So for me it makes lockdown more bearable and reminds me why what I'm doing is a small sacrifice compared to others.

I feel like small businesses frequently appear in the news with stories showing how they are suffering - small shops, hospitality, event planning, all sorts. That's been on quite a lot. And people talking about how their mental or physical health has suffered. Maybe I just watch a lot of TV (local news?) but it feels like a balanced view to me.

@the80sweregreat

It needs to be seen and these people have been working so hard and are only human. They are not used to people dying in such large numbers. It's bound to have an affect on them. I feel so sorry for them. I couldn't do their job.

But does it 'need to be seen' night after night after night?

Yes, we're working hard, yes we're only human. And I speak, as I've already said, as a coalface HCP, full PPE, but not ICU.

Do you, as the viewer, feel a growing sense of empathy, of sympathy at every single new News report 'Inside St Covid's, Exclusive Access'?

Or ..not so much. After months of it.

I watched a news report last night on ITV anc the chap was the same age as dh. He’d just been taken off the ventilator and couldn’t speak, he had a whiteboard and marker. The journalist asked him questions. He said he missed his wife and two boys 💔 that got me.

@Jent13c

Not really sure where I lie on the nurses crying on tv thing, it did move me but each to their own but cant we stop peddling the 'it's their job, they should have a thick skin by now' nonsense? I don't know a single nurse who hasn't cried on a shift at some point in their career. My husbands bad day at work? Spilling lunch down him and saying something wrong during a meeting. My bad day at work? Physcially removing a ligature from a patients neck then rescusitating him, come out the room and straight on to caring for my 5 other acutely unwell patients for the next 11 hours. I'm not Covid but these people are dealing with unexpected deaths almost every shift, an unexpected death is heartbreaking and not an every day thing. The minute they stop getting bothered by it they probably shouldn't be nursing anymore.

My daughter's Covid ward had 12 deaths in 36 hours last week. In its pre-covid life, a death on her ward would have been unusual and shocking. Her team just aren't used to watching so many people die and being so helpless. This isn't ICU. And they're nursing these dying covid patients with no more than a blue mask and a disposable apron for PPE.

All the same, she's done with the whole 'crying nurses are heroes' thing.

There's a lot more access to inside hospitals now than there was before Christmas.

It's about a) encouraging people to take up their vaccination appointment by showing them how awful things are and b) challenging the deniers who have been filming in empty hospital corridors. I support them giving the media access to show people the reality but I hate how staff are being manipulated on camera.

However I also wonder how people who have previously had dreadful experiences of hospitals/the NHS feel about this coverage.

I've known friends and family members have outstanding treatment in the past few years.

But I've sadly lost at least one close family member to appalling NHS treatment (three cancelled operations leading to their death and utterly heartbreaking, almost criminal experiences on wards) and two who pulled through from serious illness despite dreadful, uncaring and neglectful inpatient treatment over the past few years.

I shudder to imagine if things were so bad in some hospitals before Covid what god forsaken places they must be now.

I actually like to know what's going on inside hospitals. It all feels remote and unreal from the comfort of your home (none of us or someone close had Covid). So if they cry or not it's irrelevant, it's the fact it is happening and it's really serious and bloody hard work to manage the situation.

Jent "Not really sure where I lie on the nurses crying on tv thing, it did move me but each to their own but cant we stop peddling the 'it's their job, they should have a thick skin by now' nonsense? I don't know a single nurse who hasn't cried on a shift at some point in their career."

No. I haven't said that. But yes, some will be peddling the 'It's their job' line.

I've cried on a shift before, possible twice in 35 years. No one filmed me on national telly, tho!

But it's the night after night after night of sobbing nurses on The News that I feel is deeply counterproductive.

Red the other stuff I've posted on this thread.

@Miljea

Not aimed at you! But there was a few original replies up thread and just the general tone of a lot of forums these days (probably not helped by the BBC )

saraclara "And they're nursing these dying covid patients with no more than a blue mask and a disposable apron for PPE."

I want to know why their union aren't all over this.

If I know my incoming patient is Covid +, I at least put on a FFP3 mask, 'aerosol producing' or not.

An aside.

Whether it's 'helpful' to you, it's really important to know that this is the state of the health service we're accustomed to relying on. A large proportion of our daily lives are changed by this tiny slice of reality - those sobbing nurses are among a very small number of people with first-hand experience of what it looks like. If we don't take those packed and failing wards into account, even more people will end up there and I happen to believe that is really, really newsworthy. We would also hear first-hand accounts in any national crisis and there would be something terribly odd and sinister if these voices were not given a platform, unhelpful side-effects notwithstanding. It's newsworthy.

@yanisakershman

I actually like to know what's going on inside hospitals. It all feels remote and unreal from the comfort of your home (none of us or someone close had Covid). So if they cry or not it's irrelevant, it's the fact it is happening and it's really serious and bloody hard work to manage the situation.

But night after night after night?

Haven't you 'worked out' what's going on inside hospitals 9 months into this pandemic??!

"Gosh, Tony, since last evening, I'd completely forgotten that people are dying of Covid in ICUs all over the country! Look! Here's a news report of blurry blue-scrubbed PPE'd staff in St something or other's! Oh, look, a couple of (long-shot) staff are hugging each other! Oh, and listen! A nurse is telling us that people are dying of Covid in ICUs! Aw, she has a catch in her voice and has to step away from the camera"

Who knew?...

Its designed to scare people.

I don't think this strategy works with everyone - some people just aren't easily scared, other people develop compassion fatigue. Society works on the basis of everyone carrying out their allotted roles, so by constantly using the news to hammer home this message, you are also sending the message to other people that their role in society is less important, they are dispensable, and ultimatley, the State has power over who lives or dies. So you better be careful or else.

I find it a bit sinister to use news channels in this way. Equally, a more optimistic slant could be given on things. eg if the average age of death was given. Tonight we were told, again, that the NHS is at full capacity and that 38,000 hospital beds are occupied. Out of a population of 66.65 million.

I've cried on a shift before, possible twice in 35 years. No one filmed me on national telly, tho!

Well, the context is obviously significant, no? This is a highly transmissable virus that has created a very high excess death toll. With all respect, the point isn't just the tears, is it. It's all the tears to come if this story isn't made public. There are only so many ways this story can be told yet it keeps being news, night after night. And it's not static - the care is failing more and more, the nurses are growing more traumatised, the situation is becoming more desperate. Hence needing to hear and see this.

I actually find your posts quite distasteful, OP.

You don't sound that far removed from the people you're pretending to be worried will become deadened to the horror of this.