What it's like to work in infection control as Northumberland battles coronavius

The anonymous account was shared through the regular staff-experience slot at the recent board meeting of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

They wrote: ‘Our department started to feel the impact of the virus really early on. Around December time we had to start screening in the community and we were already having to change the way we worked, while also dealing with winter pressures.

‘Most days felt so relentless and full of uncertainty and the unknown, at the same time it felt like everyone in the trust was looking to infection control for the answers.

‘At first it felt optimistic in some ways. That the impact was going to be only slight, but it very soon became apparent the enormity of the situation.’

The member of staff also described how normal routines totally changed, with updates coming thick and fast.

‘With protocol changing on a daily basis for PHE (Public Health England), this impacted heavily on the department and we were constantly having to be the bearer of bad news or changing our messages and staff got frustrated with our department.

‘One good thing to come out of all this though, is that staff are now a lot more receptive to the messages and training that infection control deliver.’

Reflecting on their personal experience, they said: ‘Sometimes it has felt hard to switch off. I think that my role as a trauma nurse has also set me in good stead to deal with everything the pandemic has thrown at us.

‘I thrive on this type of situation, although I have had to develop my leadership skills and be intuitive and aware that not everyone in the team deals with these sorts of pressures in the same way and that it can impact the team in different ways.’

They added later: ‘My husband also works in the trust and comes from an ethnic minority background so he was risk assessed and was re-deployed from NSECH (Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington) to different clinics throughout the trust as he is an orthopaedic surgeon.

‘He also lost his mum during the crisis so we have been supporting each other through that, which was hard, losing my mother-in-law, but not feeling able to take any time off with the role being so busy, lots of responsibility and wanting to be there for my team as well.’

The staff member is also clear that the trust and their team is not at the end of the process by any means, writing: ‘There remains a lot more work to be done.

‘At least 12 months of changing our practice. Not knowing if there is going to be a second wave, but being prepared for this should it happen. Getting ahead. Accepting that things are not going back to ‘normal’ for a long time and how that looks for the trust as a whole.’

Presenting the account at the board meeting, Northumbria Healthcare’s director of patient experience, Annie Laverty, said: “It’s a reflection of how hard staff have worked. It speaks a lot about the strength of team working and integration.”