It’s hard to believe that four years ago we were embarking on the first Covid-19 lockdown and facing the greatest challenge the NHS has ever known.
In some ways, it feels like only yesterday to me, but in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. Or, that my memory of it is like watching a film – it still all seems so very surreal.
Yet, the impact has been all too real, and the effects on many have been utterly devastating. I am always so proud of the nursing profession and never more so than during those worst days of the pandemic. We saw nurses and carers living away from their homes and families to enable them to keep going into work to save lives, care for the most vulnerable and needy, and to protect others. They were faced with the most extreme challenges and rose to meet them without hesitation.
“Nurses in all roles and settings stepped up to the demand and challenge”
Nurses took to social media to galvanise people and spread hope, to promote messages about safety and, memorably, request people cease in panic buying so they could at least buy essential food and goods on their way home from exhausting and traumatic shifts. They put their own lives at risk and, very sadly, thousands died simply doing their duty. Countless more are still living with the long-term effects on their physical and mental health.
Many of these nurses and carers were failed by those who should and could have done more to supply adequate and affective personal protective equipment (PPE). We can only hope the truth of the full extent of this dereliction of duty and associated accountability will result from the Covid-19 inquiry.
Crucially, the lessons to be learnt must be taken seriously and not simply sidelined, like so many other inquiry findings and recommendations have been over the years. So, what have we learnt as a nursing profession, or rather, what has the experience reconfirmed and affirmed for us?
Well, I believe it has highlighted the vital role of nurses and the amazing expert care that is delivered on a daily basis.
Nurses were the ones at patients’ bedsides 24/7 and, with no visitors permitted, played an even greater role in providing compassionate, empathetic care. They were the ones caring for patients as they took their last breaths, and conveying messages from bereft relatives and loved ones who could not be present.
They did this time after time, not knowing when or how this nightmare was going to end. Yet, they just kept going.
Community and mental health nurses stepped up to do even more to keep patients in their own homes to prevent hospital admissions and, again, they put their own lives at risk visiting patients’ homes to continue delivering vital care and treatments.
Nurses came out of retirement to help and military nurses assisted in building and establishing Nightingale Hospitals in record time. Nurses in all roles and settings stepped up to the demand and challenge.
They kept calm and carried on caring for all their patients under the most extreme circumstances, and went into battle with Covid-19 to help care for and save us all.
To all those nurses, and the loved ones of those we lost, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you and remind everyone that these sacrifices and exceptional duty must never be forgotten.
Helené Donnelly is head of safety culture, Nuffield Health