There are many types of essential workers out there. As a Nurse, I am one. The national Coronavirus updates by the Government and NHS England change day by day, as do our local updates. I want to give you a walk through of my week, to give you an idea of what it has been like.
Monday – A very mixed day. An early start and I hadn’t slept well. A colleague brought in a bacon bap, which would have been enough to make my day. But then we got a huge delivery of food from the local Nandos for us NHS staff for free. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of both my colleague and the Nandos staff.
It was a pleasant day weather wise, as it would be for the rest of the week. But on my drive home I was so disappointed to see so many people out when the Government had told people to stay at home.
Tuesday – I start my day by checking for Coronavirus updates on our NHS Tust’s intranet. This will become daily practice over the course of the week as I try to remain up to date at all times. I’m working from home today, as I’m on a rare non-clinical day. It feels weird not to drive into work, I guess this is what all the other home workers must be feeling.
Social distancing starts.
Wednesday – Today I complete an appraisal with my colleague. The best thing about managing staff is watching them grow and develop. The feedback I gave in the appraisal was extremely positive and I used a coaching approach to look at planning for the next quarter and year.
Although I don’t do appraisals every day, there was a feeling of everything being normal. This was despite the challenges of implementing plans around Cornonavirus around the hospital.
Thursday – The day was over before I knew it. I spent a lot of time getting up to date with tasks that I needed to get done. I also put together a rota for the next few weeks (obviously subject to change). Overall a productive day. I got home, put my lounge wear on and began to relax. Then I heard the noise of horses hooves outside.
Who the heck is riding a horse when they should be at home? I thought. I looked out of my window and was touched to see several neighbours clapping for the NHS and other essential workers. It left me feeling appreciated, privileged to do the job and honoured to work in our NHS.
Friday – Today I spent the day covering the office phone, bleeps and mobiles, ready to give telephone advice if needed. Good fortune appeared to smile down on me because nobody called or bleeped. This meant I managed to get some clinical auditing done.
I hope this post has been of interest. Write soon,
Antony
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Hello Antony! So wonderful to hear from you. Thank you. And thank you to the NHS. A shout out too to carers, postal workers, supermarket and other shop staff, food retailers, suppliers, delivery people, cleaners, call centre staff, those making essential goods, scientists and researchers, civil servants, rubbish collectors, farmers, public transport workers, police, fire services, vets, animal shelter staff, volunteers and anyone else I might have forgotten. Thank you all.
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for the comment. No need for thanks – just doing my job.
Big hugs,
A x
And you’re doing it because you care. And that is everything. Big hugs back. For my team at work I write funny top tips from an autistic person on social distancing. Being autistic, I have so much empathy for NTs who must find this world scary and alien. xx
Awe thank you for your kind words Andrea. What’s NTs?
A x
Oops, sorry, neuro-typical people. x
Ah…neuro-typical 😛 Not a phrase I’ve ever come across. x