Teamwork

I’ve just completed my latest block of shifts. It was pretty tiring. I finished my last shift yesterday morning and still feeling tired! We basically were doing more of the same again. Setting up ventilators to go on patients, quality assurance testing, trouble-shooting equipment, responding to questions and problems, as well as helping out with patients. After having so much hands on experience I’m definitely feeling more comfortable with the various tasks. Also continuing to really enjoy working with my team. Such an awesome bunch of people! Also getting pretty slick at donning and doffing PPE. I’m sure that will prove a useful life skill!

There were fewer patients on the wards this time round, so not as busy as last time. I started to get to know some of the other staff as well. Its nice when you see a familiar face (or pair of eyes!) come onto the ward. The patient numbers have gradually been going down, so there was time for more general chat and getting to know some people. It was interesting finding out where people normally work and what their normal work involves. Such a range of backgrounds and experience. Some had left the health service and were doing something entirely different before the pandemic. Others work in the health service but in different roles. Even ICU doctors and nurses were saying they found the setting hard because normally they know where everything is and work in a set way, and this time they were working with staff they don’t know and with different procedures to what they are familiar with. I think everyone has found the setting challenging in one way or another. And that’s before you factor in dealing with patients dying, or the challenge of having patients that are on ventilators for weeks on end and not improving. Its hard when you keep seeing patients who have been there for weeks, and you see they are not improving. It makes you feel pretty helpless. I was so impressed with the nurses in particular, who kept looking after their patients with kindness and compassion, day after day. I imagine it gets hard to do that when you never get anything back from the patient.

Since we had extra time, as well as doing routine work, we also did some experimenting on the ventilator set ups (not while attached to patients! You can use a “test” lung to do the “breathing”). We had some clinicians asking us questions and had also noted things ourselves that we wanted to test out. It was great getting to do proper science and interesting seeing the results. We were able to share the results (and the pretty graphs I made!) with the clinical staff. They were impressed and told us how helpful it was to see. We had our set up in an empty bay, and across the shift various staff came by to see what we were up to and have us explain our findings. So that was cool! We will write it up properly and try and circulate as it has a potential impact on how the patients are treated.

The Nightingale has just announced today that they are going to “stand by” mode once all the current patients have left. They will leave everything in place, and have told us that we as staff will also be on put on standby. The plan is to have everything in readiness in case there is a second wave. They may also re-task the Nightingale to allow other hospitals to get on with other work, but there was no detail given as to what this might involve. So for now I have come back to Oxford. Since I am not on shift again till Friday, it is unlikely I will need to go back in at this stage. I am still on the reserve list for the ICU here in Oxford, so am back now to being on both standby lists. We have also started to think through and plan how we might go about re-starting the gait analysis service once we have clearance from the hospital to do that. It seems every time a plan is made and I think I know what I’ll be doing for the next little while, it all changes again! I am definitely a “planner” so that’s been pretty challenging to deal with. But the reality is I’m never really the one in control, even when it appears that way, and I like to think I am. So its good to have constant reminders of that! And the one who is ultimately in control can certainly be trusted and will always have a far better plan than me! I just need to remember that. Once again, our vision verse seems apt!

Thanks again for all your prayers. I’ve been very aware of people praying and very much appreciated it. I don’t know what will happen next, but trusting that God will lead.