Page 30 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

28 The Gazette QARANC Association
COVID-19 – experiences of a
preceptorship nurse at Joint
Hospital Group (South)
The Queen Alexandra Hospital (QAH) was originally a military hospital over a century ago. To this day, the links between military and civilian healthcare have been maintained. The hospital trust now cares for a local population of 625,000. Joint Hospital Group (South) has over 200 tri-Service military personnel from a multitude of healthcare professions who support their NHS colleagues each day. Working as one team, military clinicians maintain and develop their skills to ensure readiness for operations.
Prior to COVID-19, clinical patterns at QAH for JHG(S) RNs and HCAs were similar to our civilian counterparts. Assigned to a handful of departments across the hospital for set periods of time, we undertook clinical hours following a set off-duty agreed with the Trust to support their staffing requirements and meet the agreed contractual requirements. Some staff remained in allocated departments for longer periods of time, for example, those who are specialist practitioners or those preparing for specialist courses. Others, such as myself, who were on the preceptorship programme, rotated between stints on medical and surgical departments to gain the experience required for newly qualified nurses to become operationally deployable assets.
As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, it was clear that normal working practices needed to change. Demands across the hospital altered rapidly. Intensive care was hit hard with an influx of critically ill COVID-19 patients, as were areas such as
SSgt Mutavayi completing clinical duties in PPE
Scaled back and socially distanced Corps Day celebrations at JHG(S)
Respiratory High Care. However, in areas such as the Emergency Department, patient footfall decreased, as people were more cautious to present ill at the hospital. In the surgical departments, many operations were cancelled which saw a further reduction in patient numbers. It was at this point that JHG(S) HQ decided that a more flexible approach to the employment of personnel would provide a more directed and reactive resource to meet the needs of the hospital during such testing times.
To facilitate this, a personnel pool was created from our non-contracted staff. Minimal personnel were kept in their original departments to cover the required contracted shifts that had been agreed within those areas. A few others were deployed to assist with FIT testing ensuring that all staff had access to correctly fitting PPE and others worked within the Hospital Silver Command Team. The remaining military RNs/HCAs were then pooled
SSgt Strojny and Pte Sillah keeping the ward clean
and redeployed daily to areas of the hospital that required our assistance most. This relied on all of those within the pool being on standby daily, in anticipation of receiving a call to report for work. Many of us were sent to ward areas where we had never stepped foot before. This was daunting at times, especially for those of us who were newly qualified registrants, but showed the adaptability of Corps personnel to deliver clinical effect wherever required.
Cpl McIntyre in PPE