It’s happening again, the wards are filling up with COVID-19 patients. Today was absolutely chaotic, the worst I’ve ever seen it in my 12 years.
The ward I work on was massively short staffed with everyone (nurses, auxiliaries, catering, porters, domestics etc) run off their feet dealing with patients, sorting things out, answering buzzers and dealing with serious situations despite being massively short staffed.
I even ended up answering a few buzzers (I made sure the patients were aware that for anything requiring nursing or auxiliary staff I wasn’t able to help) because there was literally no one else available to do so at one point in the morning, everyone was busy dealing with something. Why have I mentioned that? I’m not a doctor, a nurse, an auxiliary or anyone responsible for patient care. I’m facilities staff, answering patient buzzers isn’t something we do but ‘needs must’. That’s how bad it’s getting. They help me when I’m snowed under with work after all.
I have never seen my colleagues so stressed or busy, many even skipping breaks just because there wasn’t any other realistic option. People seemed on edge but everyone had a smile for everyone else.
Why am I posting this? Honestly, I don’t know, mostly to just get off my chest how hectic it was today. Also because I’ve noticed that over the last few months staff in the hospital (of all roles, in all departments) have went above and beyond their normal duties in order to deliver or support patient care during an unprecedented time of crisis. My experience is that when our backs are against the wall and everything is going down the pan in the hospital, things just get done.
I post something like this every few months but I think it’s important to take a note of what’s going on and what people are doing about it. Once we’ve beaten this, it’ll be important for our own mental health to reflect on everything.
I suppose the main reason I’m posting this is to let people I work with know that it can only get better as long as we all have each others back.
I’m exhausted and I get to do it all again tomorrow where there’s even more work waiting on me no doubt but I’m fine with that, honestly.
Hang in there, we’ll beat this.
Pandemic Diary 