Page 32 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

30 The Gazette QARANC Association
Janet Kelsey and I launched a Zoom meeting for our module students two days later. It was early days for both students and staff to use Zoom in this format . The ensuing melee as 200 plus students joined us, and all talked at once created a vortex of feedback not dissimilar to surround sound tinnitus. The question topics were unrelated and randomly firing across the chat function like ticker tape. I am not sure if I laughed to avoid crying at this point but it definitely felt like a wow moment. The audience was most engaged with the Zoom background options and liked the idea that we could materialise from a tropical beach; this humour facilitated a sense of comfort which allowed them to ask questions about the module and what was going to happen next.
The students quipped about the joys of being relegated back to their parents’ homes and battling with siblings over access to the family laptop to keep abreast with studies. Finding a quiet space to follow lectures when space was shared, caused a mix of anxiety and amusement, as family members unwittingly joined the throng of voices coming over the Zoom meeting.
Students who lived alone reported that their Zoom sessions with the module were often their only time face to face with others. I set up a weekly group session for my personal students to allow them to practice using the Zoom tools and provide support for each other.
The first years were unable to start their second clinical placement, and the second year theory modules were brought forward to fill the placement gap. These students have rallied and created their own online support groups and set a lockdown routine that enabled them to attend lectures whilst still in their pyjamas and keep a constant flow of tea coming via kind family members whose anonymous arms would stretch round doorways to plant mugs near cameras. The smaller group sessions allowed them to share their experiences working as healthcare assistants, or their latest home craft achievement. Many students shared their pets’ exploits and tweeted photographs of the animals that joined the lecture audience.
The faculty has been responsive to the situation throughout with timely communications. The analogy of the
Swan gliding whilst underneath a hive of activity occurs to ensure that appropriate learning continues can be applied to the whole university ethos. The School of Nursing and Midwifery has networked with other faculties to support practical development with students being invited to access virtual reality simulations including non- contact methods of building upon their clinical exposure.
The continuing theme throughout these last twelve weeks has been creativity, from the extent that the university has evolved practice to enable students to continue their learning, to the ways that students have connected and supported each other. A Zooming marvellous experience for both lecturers and students – feedback has been positive and has reinforced how flexible and capable the nurse lecturers can be during times of rapid and great change.
Sara Hawkins West Country Branch
My Nightingale Experience
The 23 March 2020 started out with me heading to the Joint Operational Control Centre for St John Ambulance in London to set up a rota of senior clinical staff to support our volunteers during Covid-19 and ended up with my accepting the role as Director of Operations for NHS Nightingale London!
When I arrived at Excel that day it was like all my lives had landed in one place. I met members of 256 Field Hospital with whom I had served who were helping set up the facility, NHS staff who I had worked with at Newham University Hospital, and my clinical design lead from Newham. Shortly after I started I brought St John Ambulance on board. Before I arrived I had already started going through my contact list and pulled in Colonel Jane Davis, Major (Retd) Di Robertson-Bell, my deputy from my Kings days, an OH lead, Safeguarding lead, and borrowed an Infection Prevention specialist from St John, so it was a hospital built on
friendship and trust. These people did not hesitate and indeed some came not knowing what I wanted them to do. I went home that night and packed a bag and did not return home for two weeks then only overnight to do the washing and so it was to be the routine of my life for nine weeks.
A manic period of activity ensued with getting the hospital build, 14-16 hour days, back to the hotel, rapid decision making, holding twice daily Bronze meetings to keep all the work streams on plan. Our mission was to deliver a hospital in nine days for the first 500 beds of the 4000 beds that were then to be built. Each 2000 bed ward was approxinately 1km long so plenty of walking. Each bed had two oxygen and one air outlet, eight double sockets, portable suction, emergency assistance call bell and computer. We had two CT Scanners and mortuary capacity for 1600 patients. Our management team all had a clinical background. The effort of every single
person on the site was extraordinary not one person said, ‘not my job’. It was exciting, exhausting, emotional and very scary as we could see the scale of what we were building. We had to manage the anxiety of our building team as they were frightened seeing the size of the build. We had to put some rapid OH support in place as we had some staff go down early with Covid-19. There were logistical challenges as we had equipment arriving in the hospital and going straight back out again to equip ICU beds across London, we could not justify holding onto it until we