I was on the bloody News yesterday.
ITV asked to interview myself and Liam from The Laura Hyde Foundation. It was overwhelmingly intense, I was so nervous I’m surprised I managed to get anything coherent out. It’s amazing, despite going over what I planned to say with the producer, Liam, in my own head and writing out a poster sized cheat sheet – I still went blank for a second. I managed to blabber out some of the points I wanted to make, but most remained on the cheat sheet. I don’t know if anyone reading has done any public speaking before, or anything similar where you have to over ride the blind panic in order to perform.
My legs were shaking, palms sweaty, that inner voice screaming “OH MY GOD YOU’RE ON TV”.
But I did it, and although I made some pretty weird facial expressions, didn’t completely fluff it.
Bonus.
So I thought I would treat you all to the nuggets of wisdom I wish I’d managed to get out in the 2 mins air time I had.
Firstly it was the why?
Why is it important.
People aren’t idiots, it’s clearly a stressful job and a particularly difficult time.
However it was difficult way before Covid hit. I have had the luxury of six months off to work on my mental health and learn how to deal with stress – my colleagues haven’t been so lucky. After years of being battered by the job, most of them were weary already, their reserves depleted, but they took on this new challenge with all the vigour they could muster.
Now there is a bit of an assumption that if you’re a Nurse or Doctor, you are well trained to deal with all types of conditions. Unfortunately as a Student your exposure to various specialties is relatively limited, once qualified it depends where you work as to the type of experience you’ll gain. Again when it comes to our current function, I’m one of the lucky ones, coming from A&E I’m a jack of all trades, this varied experience meant I had confidence in certain areas others have felt out of their depth. Many staff have stepped up and dutifully been redeployed, but there was no time to make sure they were ready for it. We are out of our comfort zone. Some of these staff have worked within specialties for years, and overnight they stepped into a new role.
This has had a massive impact on confidence, like with me and the transition from ED to ward nursing, I feel massively out of my depth at times and completely clueless.
It undermines the belief you have in your own practice, you doubt your capabilities and this makes you anxious. Role confusion is well documented to lead to stress, with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and it’s progression, we are left in limbo, which isn’t a great place to be. Our ward has been closed so we have been redeployed to various wards, changing each shift, every day has felt like my first day. Without the team spirit it’s all the more difficult, it doesn’t seem so bad when you feel like you’re in it together.
I think recently we seem to have all hit a wall – realisation has hit us like a brick to the face – we could be dealing with this for a really long time.
So what to do about it?
The Trust have massively impressed me with their approach to mental health support for staff since I’ve been there, and from what I’ve heard it was something high on their agenda before the virus. They already had psychological support available for staff to self refer to, I also think a national helpline would be beneficial with counselling for a 24 hour service.
This is something I know The Laura Hyde Foundation have been trying to develop for a while but should it have been left down to a charity to implement this?
There is no national requirement for Trusts to provide Mental Health Support for staff which leads to massive disparities between the experiences of NHS workers. Surely there lies a Duty of Care from the Employer when they knowingly put employees in an environment that is a danger to their mental health.
Where is the risk assessment?
When I was poorly and finally got access to therapy every session it started with me completing a self assessment of my mood and anxiety, this was used to measure the effectiveness of the treatment. Could this be adapted as a tool to monitor staff? To me it seems like a simple way of evaluating the mood of staff, if scoring high there could be some form of outreach, offer of support or signposting. It also gives the person self reporting an increased awareness of their mental health, it prompts them to think a bit deeper about how they really feel, which again I think is a powerful tool.
The psychology service have been really supportive to staff within our Trust, we reached out to them as we were struggling to maintain morale when we were all dispersed around the hospital. They are organising weekly video meetings for the whole team which will be led by a member of the Psychology staff. They also have one to one sessions that you can self refer to and a massive amount of further wellbeing initiatives. I’m also trying to develop a “Stranded Staff Service – which supports those redeployed around the Trust, the refreshing things is how receptive the management are to initiatives such as these. They aren’t at all defensive, just genuinely want to improve where they can. Again this is something which varies depending on the Trust you work at, a postcode lottery on which workplace values and invests in your mental well being.
It bemuses me that every year we have mandatory Moving and Handling training to protect our backs, yet nothing similar to protect our minds. Surely it’s just as, if not more important, people don’t die from a bad back. Suicide rates are on the rise, PTSD increasing, what will it take for some serious action?
What I would suggest is that as a workforce we need to push for improvement. One of the major lessons I’ve learnt over the past year is that there are people who want to listen and are in a position to help, you just need to find them.
Hammer out emails and letters, go above those who seem to be constantly throwing up barriers if needed, it’s unlikely everyone will have the same attitude.
There isn’t much more empowering than genuinely being listened to after countless doors to the face.
You can make a difference, just keep on knocking.