Page 29 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

The Gazette QARANC Association 27
ahead of its time and allowed nurses to work in remote locations with minimal medical support.
In 2013, I worked in clinical governance during Operation Herrick in Afghanistan and I was helicoptered into remote bases all over the country to check medical facilities were being run in the right way and would report back to the joint headquarters.
I remain an Army Reservist and am currently a Major in the Nationally Recruited Unit (NRU) MOSG, despite having left the forces in 2014 to seek a job that would retain the challenge but be more family friendly.
Since being at the CCG, I have had many new opportunities and have been accredited as a Queen’s Nurse, I was a finalist in the Nurse of the Year category of the 2015 Nursing Times Awards, and have completed a Masters degree. My current challenge is leading the CCG’s PPE cell as part of the local Covid-19 response and have started a range of initiatives including working with local businesses to source spare PPE.
More than 100 organisations and an army of volunteers across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay rose to the challenge and delivered PPE to strengthen the supplies available to frontline carers in the county. My team have worked with local businesses, schools, colleges and seamstresses, who have pulled out all the stops to ensure that NHS and care workers were able to keep themselves and their patients safe at times when supplies were in peak demand around the world. We set up a quality assurance process for checking all donations offered and used international specifications to ensure we only re-purposed quality items. We worked with local MOD bases who were able to put us in touch with their main suppliers and we began to procure our own PPE through different routes.
Although we have faced constant challenges and we have had to establish systems quickly and develop them in response to fast changing circumstances, I am immensely proud that Devon is in a strong place with their stock of PPE compared to other areas. Where national shortages occur or where standard supply lines are delayed or problematic the CCG has been proactive in seeking other and alternative supplies.
We have also been innovative and manufacturing lines developed locally
have ensured that we have now a supply of certified reusable washable gowns suitable for nurses working in community settings to provide care for people on ventilators. These local businesses who used to make sails and duvets have been incredibly supportive of our want to ensure we have solutions and alternatives to the disposable PPE market.
I believe my military training has enabled me to successfully run the Devon wide PPE cell. I learnt a lot about team-building in the Army as I was used to be being told to set something up from scratch and then being given the people who would be working on it. I also use techniques that I learnt when making things happen, such as the seven questions approach – it’s for addressing combat problems but I can apply it to all sorts of situations. Leading the PPE cell to bolster national supplies with other local solutions is a big challenge but it’s about breaking down problems into their component parts and then solving them.
Nurses are really good at multi- tasking and getting things done and they often don’t get the recognition they deserve. Too often in the community I hear people saying someone is ‘just a
Vanessa receiving her Queen’s Nurse Certificate
nurse’ – it’s up to me and other leaders to lead by example and change that kind of perception to make sure nurses get the recognition they deserve. They are unsung heroes.
Vanessa Crossey
Vanessa on active service