Covid 19 A QARANC Student Nurse’s Experience by Bethany Neame

After many years of attempting to get into nursing, having undertaken an access into nursing course, retaken my maths functional skills course and completed my basic training, what seemed the impossible finally happened and I moved into my university accommodation ready to start the 3 year nursing degree. However, just 8 weeks into the course the global Covid 19 pandemic hit and we were sent home. As first years we were pulled from all placements as we were deemed more of a burden to mentors and wards who supervise and look after us.

After almost a whole year of waiting we were finally allocated 8 weeks of clinical placement at the end of our first year. No amount of preparation can prepare you for your first big day on your ward. I had visited the week before with another fellow nursing student I knew was on the same ward so I knew where I was going on my first day. I had called up and introduced myself, got my shifts for that week and found out who my mentor was, but the moment I arrived I felt totally lost. I had no experience of working on wards and in hospitals before, so I hopelessly followed my mentor round to the morning handover, but didn’t understand a single word. Only that on the night shift a patient had died and we were waiting for the porters.

I hadn’t been on placement during the first wave, but I was told in the second wave there were a lot more deaths, so the porters were always very busy and often late, so we would find ourselves struggling for bed spaces when we were waiting for a patient to be collected after they died. This ward was previously an elderly care ward, but in the pandemic, it became a closed Covid positive ward where elderly would go if they were Covid positive or to complete their isolation before they were discharged. Unfortunately, many didn’t often survive to be discharged.

After a few weeks of clinical placement, I began to understand how the ward ran from an HCAs perspective, but didn’t manage to get much time with my nurse mentors as it was always so busy. Almost every handover reported a patient loss and I finally had my first experience of doing the last offices. Previously I had been a carer for 9 years, but I never saw or experienced any death, I thought I would be okay but in that moment I found myself thankful for having a face mask to cover my quivering chin and a visor to hide my glossy eyes.

My mentors were good with checking on me but for the most part I found myself mostly left and lost, unsure of what to do and stressed about getting my competency book signed. As our only clinical placement for our first year in nursing, we had our entire book of competencies to get signed in such a short time frame. Plus, I then found myself needing to isolate for 14 days following exposure to Covid. I attempted to plead my case that I worked on a Covid positive ward and that was a lot more exposure. However, that didn’t matter, and I completed my 14 days isolation and lost two weeks’ worth of clinical hours that I will be required to make up in my third year.

After my isolation was finished, I felt deflated and didn’t really want to continue but I knew I had to complete it to pass first year. The first handover back every single patient was different, and it was like starting brand new again. I am thankful for the other student nurse on my ward as it was nice to have someone to voice concerns to and talk about our days too, I think this really helped us both get to the end.

I finally manged to get some time with my mentors to sign my book and it was such a relief to have passed despite losing two weeks of hours and the it only clinical time in my first year.

I look back on my time on the ward as a real eye opener to the struggles of working in a busy hospital ward and commend the way all the staff conducted themselves, no matter how busy or stressful in such a demanding and uncertain time. I never could have predicted that I would be working on a Covid ward through a global pandemic in my first year but I gained valuable experience and insight through being thrown in at the deep end.



Pte Bethany Neame Intake 01/20