Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)/ Microbiology Team | Celebrating BWC Spirit

By Roslyn Timmins, Lead Nurse, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)/ Microbiology Team

 

What was your experience of the pandemic? 

First thoughts are how busy, challenging and overwhelming it was at times. As we are the Infection Prevention and Control / Microbiology team we had to adapt to the needs of the Trust very quickly; identifying how diverse our services are and the needs across all sites were very different.  

Our team was the go-to team and at times it was very difficult to maintain the level/intensity of work, but we pulled together and responded to all questions/queries as quickly as we could. 

It was very tiring at times especially emotionally. 

All this said I feel this team, the whole Trust, our patients and families were amazing and wanted to help each other and keep each other safe. I’m so proud to work for BWC. 

What was the hardest part? 

Initially it was keeping up to date with the daily, sometimes hourly changes in guidance from Public Health England / NHS England. Trying to disseminate this and support staff to fulfil the frequent changes in guidance. 

I personally found that speaking to a lot of people who were scared and confused, trying to reassure them that we wanted to keep them safe, this was very difficult as we were learning ourselves. 

How did you cope? 

With support from within the team, making sure we recognising that our resilience of working through this would be different for each of us every day and ensuring when someone was finding things hard we supported them and ensured they had time to talk, grab a coffee  or just a quiet 5 minutes.  

Staff across the Trust were keen to help us and work with the team. They were grateful for our support which really helped. A smile from someone and asking how you and your team are doing made a huge difference. 

What did you learn? 

A lot! Every day was a new challenge. It re-iterated to me the importance of being kind to each other. 

How do you think it changed the team? 

It made the team change it lots of ways, from covering extra hours, how we communicated within the team and with the wider Trust. It’s made us a very resilient team as we needed to be able to provide a high level of IPC guidance and support. 

Beyond your team, who has inspired you during the pandemic? 

Individuals who have had challenges at home due to the Pandemic and still come to work. 

The parents who haven’t been able to spend time with their babies /children together; the children/ young people who haven’t been able to see their siblings; the mums to be who have had to go to appointments/ through labour on their own & the dads who have had to wait outside the hospital whilst their partners have been receiving care. 

Everyone who worked in clinical areas with COVID-19 positive patients; nurses, doctors, domestics, porters, physios etc. especially when we were learning about the virus and use of PPE.