I've just finished my penultimate week of my first nursing placement; one week left and then it's back to academic life. I'm looking forward to the (relative) lie-ins and no night shifts, but as I was leaving yesterday morning, I realised I was going to miss being on the ward. It certainly hasn't been easy, and of course some days were better than others, but I've loved it.
I landed in quite an interesting spot for a first placement, a covid ward. The ward is actually infectious diseases, but part of the floor was sectioned off for non-critical-care covid cases, and that's where I worked most of my shifts. We had straight covid cases, but also, if someone came to the hospital for something else, and they were found to be covid-positive, they were moved to our ward. Great, varied exposure for a first placement.
We had a three-week break for Christmas in the middle of the placement, and when I returned, I learned that our ward had been 'upgraded' from a standard covid ward to a high-dependency respiratory unit (HDRU). This meant a whole new experience, as these patients were much more unwell and mostly on CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) ventilators, an aerosol-generating procedure, which requires a higher level of PPE.
The PPE is hot. I'm more used to it now, but by the time breaks come along, I am still often dripping through my scrubs. The work is more physically challenging, as the patients tend to have lower mobility, and I've had my first patient deaths on the HDRU. But from a student perspective, it's been positive. It's almost like having two placements in one, but without having to start from square one, and the nurse:patient ratio is lower, allowing for more in-depth care and learning.
And the people! The people on the ward are phenomenal. What they are doing, how they are handling it, how they are supporting patients and each other, it's genuinely uplifting. There is such a unity of purpose, from the cleaners to the doctors, to take care of the patients and one another. It's incredible to be a part of.
This won't be news to anyone, but coming from the corporate world into healthcare, I can confirm that healthcare workers are significantly underpaid. The skills I see on the floor every day - not just from the hands-on staff, but from management as well - have so impressed me. I see what people are having to deal with, how much they are taking on, and I can't believe they do it all, consistently and professionally, for so little.
And thank goodness they do. Without healthcare assistants, for example, our ward would collapse - they literally and figuratively do a lot of the heavy lifting. If you knew everything they were doing for your loved ones while in hospital, you'd think they deserved all the money in the world, but they start on £18,005. Outrageous.
Of course, I have not made this change for money, and one placement in, I am still very happy with the decision. I am looking forward to the pace of academic life for a bit, but I can't wait to find out what my next placement will be and see what's coming next.
Cheers,
Shaun
The Guardian visited my trust recently and wrote the following. T8 is my ward:
'I cry a lot on the train home': London medics fight to save Covid patients
http://shaunism.blogspot.co.uk/
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