Challenges | |
Changes to clinical practice | Example quotes |
Updating knowledge, skills and procedures (n=16) | The biggest challenge was reacting to the shifting sands…For example, personal protective equipment changed about 15 times within the first 3 weeks (P5-Nurse) I needed to relearn skills such as IV drug admin (R28-Nurse) I didn’t receive any communication regarding new policies, for example, PPE, treating COVID-19 (R16-MCA) I needed to update training; I hadn’t been on ITU for over 4 years (R1-Nurse) It was a very steep learning curve, you had to hit the ground running quite quickly (P9-MCA). Clinical activity is now mainly by means of telephone, its hard when contacting patients for the first time (R6- MCA) There were logistical issues…like how my salary was paid as I have no substantive role within the hospital (R19-Nurse). Access to clinical systems needed to be reinstated (R4-AHP). Difficulties getting a uniform (R10-AHP). |
Change of clinical duties (n=16) | For the first 6 weeks of the pandemic I literally did nothing that I’d normally do (P6-AHP) The type of work has changed. I’m covering wards I wouldn’t normally work on (R3- AHP) As OTs (occupational therapists) …our role was changed to being discharge facilitators to speed up patient flow and increase capacity…(instead of) a week before discharge, we were now anticipating discharge for the same or next day (R26-AHP). |
Psychological issues (n=8) | I’ll never forget hearing a patient, so sick with COVID-19…speaking to his family on the phone…knowing he was likely to die…I came away from the shift thinking “what can we do as clinical academics to support our staff in these difficult times”? (P1-Nurse) I worked with COVID-19 positive patients…It was very challenging. After the peak, there was decline in my mental health…I’m still undergoing counselling (R34-MCA) |
Impact on research (n=13) | I had to halt all my research endeavours…which was disappointing to say the least. I feel I have gained nothing out of the academic foundation programme…I was looking forward to completing my research (R15-MCA). Everything ground to a halt with my research activity (P8-Nurse) |
Competing pressures (n=10) | It does feel like I am trying to squeeze two full-time jobs into one working week. I have found it quite challenging…I get full time responsibilities for both jobs but only half the time to do it (R23-AHP). Although I was on essentially unpaid leave from the university…I was still having demands…it just added to the stress of the situation. They wanted research papers rewritten…but when you’re working on average a 60 hour week, when you had free time you weren’t necessarily wanting to do that (P9-MCA). I was encouraged to continue with my research in my spare time… but this wasn’t possible due to the exhaustion of working clinically (R26-AHP). They (university) don’t understand how much planning/forewarning is needed to notify clinical managers to take NHS staff off the rota (R27-Midwife). |
AHP, allied health professional; MCA, medical clinical academic.