Good morning! Just finished my first night shift at the Nightingale hospital.
I think what hit me today was the amount of patients I was looking after who were
key workers, frontline staff etc and they're just going to work doing a job
they love and no one deserves to be that sick, nobody. Nobody deserves that.
The scale of it is just really hitting me and times that by 200?
Woah, that was so surreal walking into the NHS Nightingale hospital which,
when it's finished, will be the biggest hospital in the world. Mad!
So, I'm in the hotel room and just cracking on with some of these e-learning modules we
have to do. They cover everything from like basic life support, chest compressions,
mouth care, catheter care, right through to ventilation.
This morning, just nine days after being announced,
officially opened by Prince Charles after his recent diagnosis.
I was one of the lucky ones, to have Covid-19 relatively mildly,
but for some it will be a much harder journey.
I got up at 6am, showered, hoop earrings off, all the kind of
standard nursing stuff. Although we are quite near the ExCel,
kind of for safety really, TfL have put on some buses for us
so we have to get a bus at 7.10am, start the day for 8am,
get our scrubs, get changed obviously, get everything into a locker
and then we finish at 8.30pm.
There are very rigorous steps to getting what we call 'fit tested' ...
they spray this Bitrex spray, and if you can taste the spray
then that obviously means you don't have a good seal.
If you fail the fit test you will be sent home, you can't work.
I just feel lucky because I've never experienced a problem with PPE,
so I feel very lucky and protected
So, I kept reflecting a lot last night and computing everything and
the thing that stuck out for me was receiving that first patient,
and how silent and fluid it all was.
The patient was not screaming in pain or breathless or angry, sad, he's on a ventilator, intubated,
the infusion pumps are going, and his life is really, literally in our hands.
Very surreal.
When the patient comes to us they're from intensive care, not
breathing for themselves, but the aim is then that their oxygen requirements will be
reduced and then you can safely extubate them, you can take the tubes out,
they won't need the ventilator, they will be breathing for themselves and then ...
eating, drinking, recovering, feeling fitter and stronger, and then leaving the hospital.
Going home to be with their friends and family, that is the aim and I can't wait for that.
That's what I'm here for and, you know, for sure there are going to be some sad stories
but you kind of don't let that govern everything.
You know, we try and think OK maybe for every death there'll be one or two positives
and people that survive and walk out the door.
Day two, done!
I've got to be honest, I am shattered.
I've got a real issue with my face where the masks are.
I've had a mild elastic allergy all my life but because of the duration
and the pressure with the masks, it is absolutely burning my skin.
At lunchtime I put plasters on my face and it's helped the kind of abrasiveness,
but I could definitely feel this kind of irritation ... like, you're stood there sweating and you
want to drink more because you're so hot but you just can’t. I feel really dehydrated.
It's been a little bit busier today and had more new patients, and they're doing well.
You've got, sort of, 42 beds in a long strip,
you'll be working in a bay of about six patients.
As an RN, a registered nurse, I take three patients another registered nurse takes three patients,
and then you have a whole team of doctors, anaesthetists, a critical care nurse, a matron
overseeing that bay, and the team work and cohesion is amazing.
Morale is super high, everyone's enthusiastic.
I feel personally so strongly and passionately about community and helping
and courage and perseverance and this place is everything I stand for.
It's a huge daunting place to most of the public, probably, but actually for me
when I'm inside there I think everyone is so on board and
so passionate about helping these people, that for me is my favourite thing
about this hospital; the team.
I'm proud, yeah, I'm very proud to be a nurse and to work for the NHS
and be doing this, yeah.