COVID 19 - QARANC Student Nurse Clinical Placement Experience by Fiona Farrell

My experience working in a Covid-19 environment has been both very interesting and emotional. I worked on a Covid ward for my first, year two clinical placement. Although the patients were a step down from intensive care, patients were still testing positive for the virus. On the ward, staff wore facial masks and visors and only entering the side rooms did we wear the full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). I felt very apprehensive, yet a sense of pride, because I was involved in helping patients that were so poorly and unable to communicate effectively.

This was very challenging as I had to put my skills of year one as a student nurse to the test, after all I was an advocate for those who could not speak up for themselves. I felt like I had been thrown in the deep end and counted in the numbers. However, I did not see this as a bad thing, if anything it opened my eyes and tested my skills, I had to use my initiative and take responsibility if I felt something was not quite right, I would escalate my findings and inform the nurse straight away.

I witnessed a lot of people die, which I think I will find the hardest throughout my future career, yet still be able to manage. Finishing one shift and being told at the next morning handover that a patient you were looking after had passed away through the night is hard to hear, even though you did everything you could as a team to save them, but just wasn’t enough, it is heart-breaking. However, what I took away was, we gave the patient the best care that we could and made that patient comfortable. They were not alone, as their relatives were by their side as they passed away peacefully. The most comforting thing I found, which may seem morbid to some people, was performing the last offices. I think that it is an honour and a privilege to be the last person with the patient to say a final farewell to them.

I had the first vaccine and within a few days started feeling unwell. I tested positive for Covid-19 and was ill for 3 weeks. It was very frightening because I felt extremely vulnerable and also felt in the same shoes as the patients I was looking after a few days before. This experience has taught me not to take things for granted, even though the majority of cases were elderly people, I am young and still contracted the virus. Luckily, I was not hospitalised.

I think that this pandemic has changed all our lives forever. It has shown us that as a human race how adaptable we can be.

Studying from home was difficult, having lectures over MS Teams meant that sometimes the connection was poor and I had to go back and watch the power point presentation again. I felt that there was not the same interaction that is experienced sitting in the lecture theatre together, such as bouncing ideas off each other and just having human interaction in general. On the plus side cups of tea were not on short supply. Living on my own through this pandemic has been lonely yet has built my resilience. I will be looking forward to going back to university and studying alongside my peers again and getting back into a regular routine.



- Pte Farrell Intake 01/19

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

Pandemic Life for a QARANC Student Nurse by Kathleen McAuliff

The first outbreak of COVID19 and consequently the changes that followed in 2020, brought a lot of excitement initially. It can be compared to the excitement when you wake up on a snowy morning and listening out for your school on the radio, in the hope that you get a snow day off. However, the reality settled in when it wasn’t just a three-week break from academic work, but a global crisis that resulted in a vast amount of misery, but also triumph. Documented below are a few of my personal experiences from the past 18 months.

University work

- Online lectures were PAINFUL in the beginning. It was very difficult to sit through a lecture with 100+ people who all had a different knowledge of technology. The constant interruptions with people not knowing how to mute their mics was so frustrating and made me disengage with the live lectures.

- However, as time went on I was able to start to appreciate the leisurely life of online university work: not having to set my alarm super early for the commute in, engaging in content at my own pace and taking my dinner break when I wanted! Now, I prefer online working and hope it will continue into the rest of my 2nd year and 3rd year!


Clinical Placement

- Clinical placements for 1st years was delayed, so it was crazy to know that the first time I had contact with a patient was 10 months into the course. It was a little daunting at first. I was placed on a ‘hot’ section of the ward, which meant that these patients were COVID positive patients. Throughout the shift full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was required for any patient care/interaction and I had to do a full change between patients. This could be time consuming and I developed contact dermatitis from the continual hand washing. Sometimes I would even leave the hospital with marks on my forehead from the visors. Everyday was different, with protocols changing all the time as our understanding of the virus increased and it really highlighted how much communication was so important with one another.

- The pressures that the staff were put under to work in these environments was daunting to watch, but it also showed to me the true characteristics of what it takes to be a kind human in the face of adversity and gave me insight into the person I want to grow into.


Pte Kathleen McAuliffe Intake 01/20

REMEMBRANCE SERVICE - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTHCARE EDUCATION

During the year where everything has been cancelled or put on hold, DHE were determined to still go ahead with Remembrance Day commemorations by holding a virtual event for both the Chain of Command and Tri-service Nursing students across three years of training.

After an opening address by the OC DHE Major Burden, a recording was played from three retired QARANC nursing officers – Lt Col M Bate, Major K Foster and Captain J Westbury. They highlighted the vital role of military nurses during the Gulf War and the trials they faced caring for such a vast multitude of patients while also sharing their own personal views on events during the war. I believe this also provided a reflection for nursing students on how medicine has advanced so rapidly upon viewing the pictures that were shown to us and the stories which were shared.

There were also recordings from two past QARNNS nurses, R Webb and PONN J Nicholls who shared their own personal experiences from working as Naval nurses, their journeys in their military careers and, also their careers within the NHS after leaving the Royal Navy. This gave an insight to the opportunities available to military nurses during their careers with many opportunities for specialisms and motivation to those still in training.

At 11am, the last post was sounded and a two minutes silence was observed in order to remember those who have served and lost their lives in giving the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms both during the First and Second World Wars and also more recent conflicts.

Several nursing students including myself also shared personal accounts of what Remembrance Day meant for us, with some students sharing pictures of them at military events and other in their clinical uniforms. Cpl Bushnell-Shilling also gave an insightful piece of the history of the poppy and its significance during Remembrance Day Commemorations.

It was a real joy to see the number of nursing students across the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy who were so willing to get involved in this event making it a Remembrance Day to remember in a year when the impact of COVID-19 has compromised so many events.



AB Leah B Badger Student Nurse QARNNS