Blogs

At the time of writing, I have yet to read the Public Health England report entitled ‘Beyond the data – understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities’. This publication was delayed for reasons that are not entirely clear. But from the clips that I’ve seen on the news, it seems to say what I believe has been known for some time. It has also got me thinking about conversations that I’ve recently had with NHS staff. 

I manage a team of eight people in communications and fundraising and some of us are now working from home for a lot of the time. I miss the day to day camaraderie with my team; but the upside is that I have more confidence in the team working independently because they are performing well without me breathing down their necks - and it’s even nicer when we do get together.

Covidblogs

Before COVID-19, most training was delivered in classrooms, either by us or training partners which covered weekly welcome inductions, yearly refreshers and practical sessions all supported with bite-sized specialist topics on eLearning.

Covidblogs

Last week I presented to four different meetings and a conference in one morning.  I used Zoom, MS Teams and Skype to do this and reached out to many different audiences.   All were very senior local, regional and national stakeholders.

Have you ever been winded by a punch to the solar plexus? I have. I remember not being able to breathe temporarily as I keeled over, while two boys called me offensive names and told me to ‘go home.’

When I signed up to be an AF Ambassador, I didn’t think for one second that it would one day save my own life. I volunteered to test pulses after discovering I had atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular pulse,18 months ago. I was fighting a heavy cold and chest infection and was struggling to breathe so my wife and daughter urged me to get it checked out.

I retired about two and a half years ago from Alder Hey but I have gone back three days a week as a Consultant Medical Microbiologist, in response to COVID-19. I have to follow the same social distancing restrictions as everybody else, during very strange and troubling times, but I have to admit the strangeness and the sense of inconvenience are mixed with a certain amount of excitement because we’re preparing to introduce a new hand hygiene system across the trust.

Covidblogs

I am a psychosexual therapist working part time for the NHS and also independently for privately referred clients. I am service lead in Blackburn with Darwen and am also supervising a registered nurse, Rachel, who is undertaking a Master’s in psychosexual therapy.

Covidblogs

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Debbie Parkinson, PPI Lead for the Innovation Agency, describes how reaching out to others helped her through COVID-19

When COVID-19 struck, like many NHS strategic organisations we abruptly left the offices and went to work remotely. During these anxious early days and weeks we let go of many ideas which we had thought of as ‘normal’; plans and expectations for the year were put on hold or discarded, and we had to quickly reinvent and reimagine our working lives whilst at home.