IN CONVERSATION WITH UOS HEALTHCARE STUDENTS

Disclaimer: This article has been shortened for editorial purposes, visit our website for the full interview.

In August Wessex Scene spoke to Nursing graduate Lydia Foreman and Medicine graduate Vikash Dodhia to discuss their experiences working in healthcare during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

How did the pandemic affect your course of study?

LF: I was meant to be in uni doing lectures and our dissertation in April but with the university closing we were told there would be a possibility we’d get pulled into work early. We could choose if we wanted to opt in and I managed to go back to a team I had my fourth placement with, community team. We started in April and that classes as my last placement and I’m being paid for it. First two weeks I was with someone and you go back and regroup with the team for handover, but you’re very much on your own. I’ve had a few days with the senior nurses but it’s been really good and my confidence has developed, but it’s been a strange way to go into it. If you chose to not work during the pandemic you weren’t guaranteed to qualify on time so if we didn’t t do it this way it might not have been safe for us to start placement until September.

VD: Our finals are in January, so we’d pretty much sat all of our exams. In Medicine we finish our final year with two modules called the elective and assistantship. Elective is when you spend time away from the hospital you usually spend your placement in, so a lot of people go and experience medicine in another country but that didn’t work out. After that we have assistantship, which is shadowing an F1 for four weeks. There wasn’t a lot of communication and everything was changing quickly, so we were sitting there wondering and waiting. It was quite frustrating because we’d passed our finals, the next WORDS BY LINNEA LAGERSTEDT IMAGE BY EDWARD OLDFIELD

two modules you don’t learn any knowledge, so we were pretty much as useful as we were going to be in August. With everyone else working really hard you feel like you could be useful, which was frustrating. I initially took a job as a doctor’s assistant for two weeks and then they set up the interim programme. They made a role called interim foundation doctor which is essentially working as a doctor but without the on call commitment.

Considering how quickly you were thrown into work, do you feel you were properly prepared?

LF: It was difficult but going back to a team I was familiar with helped. Being in my final year I feel like I’ve been ready to qualify and have been in a position where I’ve been able to go into a job. At first it was hard with information as the government was constantly changing their mind on what they wanted and it was a quick decision, but most of us have been understanding because nobody knows what’s happening.

VD: Whenever you start working it’s scary but in terms of what I missed from University I don’t think I was any less prepared. The module I missed was essentially what I was now being paid to do which was nice. Emotionally, I’d say no, but partly that’s because nobody had experienced Covid medicine and that was quite different and draining. It wasn’t the same as seeing normal sick people because it got bad quickly.

Did you have access to sufficient PPE?

LF: Since I’ve started we’ve always had masks but there’s been a massive demand. I haven’t been gowning up every time I see patients but for patients

“ It’s been nice for the public to recognise what the NHS is doing it’s just a shame it’s taken something this big to get that support.” Lydia Foreman, Nursing Graduate

that are suspected to have Covid we had more protection. I always felt safe working and I had training adapted to the circumstances on what you do in terms of resuscitation and PPE, which was helpful.

VD: Yes. We had minimal contact with the patients because the consultants were good and they’d go in and dictate the plan so you only had to go in if they were sick to review them. That way we minimised contact. There were people in every other bed and there was enough PPE. The thing that was a odd was that the rules kept changing. One day we’d be told we needed a certain mask and then the next we were told actually you don’t need a mask that good.

How do you feel about campaigns like clap for carers?

LF: It’s been nice for the public to recognise what the NHS is doing it’s just a shame it’s taken something this big to get that support. That support’s always been there but it’s been a reminder what a big impact the services have. Our team really liked it.

VD: I felt it was more directed to others as I’d just started working, they were the ones doing the hard work. I get it from the public, but I think the government jumped on it a bit too much to distract from hospitals being massively underfunded. A lot of the issues we’ve come into now is because hospitals have been shrinking and there’s fewer bed spaces. At my hospital it wasn’t Covid that was the issue but it was what was happening to the rest of the medicine. There were too many patients and everyone was a lot sicker because they’d been avoiding coming into hospital. I think the clap for carers was a nice gesture, but it doesn’t make up for the funding of the system.

Have you been offered any mental health support during these times?

LF: They did a wellbeing check on us and we’ve had regular meetings with senior members of staff and the support in our team’s been really good. We’ve also tried to give as much support as we can to patients, making them aware of the services that are available.

VD: My colleagues and the nurses were really supportive and I felt really comfortable in that sense but I went into it thinking that we’re just doing a day job, filling a gap. The other doctors were working a lot harder. With Covid there were a lot more doctors working nights and weekends, which meant that there were shortages during the day that we filled in. I never felt I was in a position where I felt bad for myself because those guys were working every other weekend, nights every few weeks. I wouldn’t say there was much formal stuff but I didn’t feel undersupported.

Beyond the NHS, has the university offered you any support?

LF: We get emails from the year lead and the placement team to check how we’re getting on and they’ve attached documents about referring us to the support services at the university as well.

VD: They sent a lot of words of encouragement but in terms of emotional support there wasn’t much. The welfare part of the faculty of Medicine has always been really overworked and I don’t think that’s through anyone’s fault I think unfortunately that’s just politics of how many staff they’re allowed to hire for those roles.

With the government loosening lockdown restrictions, how do you think this will affect the country and the health care system? Do you think it’s positive or negative?

LF: I think it’s positive because it has been a few months now, but it’s only possible as long as people are being sensible. We don’t want to see a big rise again because people are just going back to how things were before.

VD: Lockdown had to end at some point the whole point of lockdown was to flatten the curve and people seemed to think it was actually just to stop anyone getting Covid. But if we do have a second peak we can’t afford to turn hospitals back to what they were with like half-Covid half non-Covid. If we were to stop elective medicine again it would get to a point where it was almost too late to recover from.

What do you wish the general public understood more about the pandemic and healthcare?

LF: For those with vulnerable family members keep looking out for them and being sensible. It’s really difficult but if we follow the advice we’ve been given we can get through the pandemic and get back to some sort of normality and reunite with our family members again.

VD: I’ve seen a lot of posts from doctors being like you don’t understand what’s going on but I’m sure the public do. What I’d say is if people want to break lockdown I think they need to really understand how nasty the disease can be especially if you’re from at risk groups. I was shocked at some of the people I saw ill. They’re fighting fit people, they weren’t the type of people you would expect to see that sick, and it’s not just that it’s everything that comes with it. Covid is a pretty nasty disease.