COVID 19 Our experience

Suzanne Monks Senior Lecturer Adult Nursing (end of life care) Sheffield Hallam University

Life at university has changed exponentially. We are now all working from home providing education remotely. Within a few hours of this change we had to change all our academic content to online and remote learning which has been no easy feat. We are supporting our students who have the difficult decision to opt in, to an extended placement or continue their course. I've also been supporting practice colleagues with end of life care training for those who are now faced with supporting increasing numbers of dying patients due to COVID-19 where it was ordinarily a rarity. 

I have never been busier and it took me a good few weeks to realise the role I now play (and to stop the guilt of being a registered nurse and not on the frontline) and the value this has on practice and our students. Last week over 600 of our final-year healthcare students volunteered to join the frontline and were provided education and support to enable them to undertake extended placements. I was part of that and continue to support them and those who continue with their course. I am incredibly proud of the role we, as nurse lecturers play and this role will continue to adapt and change to the demands COVID-19 has on health and social care. 

Elisha Woolf: 3rd Year Student Nurse (Adult Field), Sheffield Hallam University

I never thought for a moment that I would end up finishing my degree in the midst of a global pandemic. I don’t think any nursing student did. Throughout this time there has been a steady stream of news and information from University as to how they are approaching teaching and supporting students. 

The email came late one evening explaining that face to face teaching would cease, the university was closing, and online teaching would commence the following week. This has been a new experience for everyone, and one I have really enjoyed. Online platforms have been utilised such as zoom, and blackboard collaborate have been really easy to use once you get the hang of them. Online seminars and lectures have been really useful, it’s been great to have this support and contact during this challenging time. However, there has been a lot more self-directed study, you really have to delve into the depths of your willpower to find the discipline you know is there, to really get on with your work and engage with the material. As a student that really thrives of face to face learning and discussion, this has been the most difficult aspect for me. 

Initially we only had information available to us provided by the NMC and HEE (Health Education England) regarding an extended placement to make a decision as to whether we should opt in or out. At this point I wasn’t sure how the universities plans were going to fit into what the NMC and HEE had set out. However, it was made really clear by the university that there was no pressure to opt in and students would be supported no matter what decision they made. Soon after came more information about how students would be supported by the university individually and reassured that we would be supported to achieve our proficiencies to qualify. I feel the university have really supported us in the best way they can, students are being allowed to continue in their original cohort whether they opt in or out, and not being pressured to defer. Most importantly, we have been told that we are not alone in this. Students will have weekly contact with their academic advisors throughout this time. As a student that’s opted in, it’s fundamental to my well-being that I know I have a support network I can access at any time, especially knowing what sort of patients and scenarios I could potentially be faced with going out into placement. 

Vicky Waller: Student Support Team Leader (acting) - Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Everything we do in student support at the hospital has completely changed.  The way we think about providing support and the logistics, all with a focus on the emotional well-being of staff within the student support team and the students and staff in practice.

The student support team consists of multi-professionals including; nurses, physiotherapist and an operating department practitioner.  Since the Covid-19 emergency began, a proportion of our time has been allocated back to the front line, working in our registered roles using the skills of our professions. Alongside this we continue to support students, now in their extended placement, employed by our trust on the emergency NMC standards. 
 
The 3rd year students who came back into the practice areas for their extended placement had an induction arranged and delivered in a way that didn’t seem possible at the time.  An absolute credit to those who were involved in the extremely quick planning and implementation of the induction and I must say that the students who attend adhered to the social distancing very well.  

The induction was a challenge but was delivered with a much more personal approach and ensured the students received  the most up-to-date information required to allow them to function safely during this COVID-19 emergency.   Matrons from placement areas attended the induction and led the way in making the students feel part of their team from Day 1 which was important to us as a Trust.  
   
We are now tasked with looking at how we continue supporting students in practice, although we acknowledge this will now look different.  The student forums and mini teaching sessions we facilitate are usually held in our Education Centre and well attended by the students but due to social distancing these will have to held completely differently and going forward this will be our challenge to even set these up remotely where possible, using the many IT resources that we are now employing on a day-to-day basis that we had never heard of before! 

What we know is that during these times things can change quickly and we have to support each other in adapting to the ever-changing picture.  We will continue to support our Students in practice in the best way that we possibly can, taking into consideration any suggestions from them in doing so.  Most importantly we thank the students, all of them, those who have opted in and those who were unable to opt in for whatever reason.    

Jo Painter Nurse Consultant Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Lecturer Sheffield Hallam University

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a need for Mental Health nurses to adopt new dimensions to their practice, rapidly, but in a supported manner.   There was potential as a result of the pandemic, that we would have a scenario of COVID-19 patients in acute mental health beds, or ill at home, particularly our older age patient areas and needing clinical intervention that nurses were unfamiliar with, and indeed understandably frightened of.  In addition the clinical environments are often not conducive to care of this type (e.g. lack of piped Oxygen), and those nurses working in the community are often faced with challenging environments that are not necessarily adaptable to best practice.   It was therefore  important to allow staff to acclimatise and take on different skills, but to feel supported and cared for themselves.  

An example of this was the need to understand key principles of end of life care.   Whilst this was recognised quite early in our region,  and resulted in a flourish of webinars from various educational institutions being offered, the ability to manage staff anxiety at this time was integral, and our leadership team felt that large cohorts with generalised guidance was not necessarily ideal.   On that basis In our organisation, we worked in partnership with Sheffield Hallam to provide bespoke End of Life Care training to small groups of clinicians via Zoom.  The content was aligned with local policy, so consistent messaging was ensured.  We could provide  a more personal approach, and allow nurses to talk about their anxieties as well as sharing the necessary information. In a time when we are consistently overwhelmed by information – with ever changing messages, this approach was vital.