What its like to be a critical care nurse working on the front lines of COVID-19 – Netdoctor

Dawn Bilbrough, 51, from York, captured the nations hearts at the onset of lockdown, when her emotional plea to shoppers to stop stockpiling went viral. As a critical care nurse, shes worked with COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic, and has had to manage the associated stress and emotional trauma that has entailed, as well as the physical difficulties of working while in full PPE.

We caught up with Dawn before her next 12-hour shift, to find out just how tough the past few months have been in an intensive care unit.

I became a critical care nurse in 2003, so 17 years. It was something I always wanted to do. I just have this natural ability to sit with people when theyre at their lowest and when theyre in pain, whether its physical, mental or emotional. I can just sit with them I dont shy away from it. I suppose you might say I just hold space.

The biggest reward for an intensive care nurse is seeing a patient come back through the doors a couple of months later, maybe a little weaker, but actually walking back through the doors and saying hi to us.

The hardest thing can be being constrained by protocol. Obviously every job has to have some structure, some protocol, so that can be a little bit frustrating sometimes. But we all work with it, dont we, and accept these things? What else is challenging? The usual lack of time, lack of resources but we all pull together. Were a really good team within the health profession, we just help each other out everyone mucks in together.

During the peak, we had such a vast number of patients coming through with COVID, patients who were incredibly unwell. Were used to dealing with very sick patients, but this was a case of every single patient was sick. As critical care nurses, we were spread quite thinly. We were very fortunate to have people come in from other departments, and even though those nurses werent trained in critical care, they got on with it and helped us as much as they could. Without them, I dont know how it would have been.

Wed also have more than one patient, which goes against what normally happens. This was quite stressful, because everyones medication was ongoing, and even though you do have someone to come and support you, youre the one actually managing the situation. Its a huge stress on an individual.

Were going to work each day not knowing what were going to be seeing.

Of course, weve all had shifts where were totally exhausted, feeling vulnerable because were going to work each day not knowing what were going to be seeing. And weve also got our own family lives back at home, along with the difficulties of the restrictions. Its definitely been challenging, but everyone has pulled together doctors, nurses, cleaners. And then of course we got additional support from Clap For Carers and all the fundraising thats been going on thats been a real morale boost and has lifted spirits a bit.

Absolutely, yes. My daughter and I dont live together, but when we first heard we were going to go into lockdown, we considered moving in together for support. But then I just thought, no, I cant do that, because I was concerned about bringing it home. Ive had colleagues whove actually lived away from their families during most of the lockdown, because they were so concerned about taking it back to their family.

Ive had colleagues whove actually lived away from their families during most of the lockdown.

It was incredibly difficult. There was a lot of FaceTime going on with family and friends, but it was really hard. And then I became ill as well I think I had COVID so I had all that going on, too. Im usually quite fit I work out a lot, have quite a healthy lifestyle and Ive never been really poorly but I was very ill. I had chest pains, a temperature quite a lot of the symptoms.

Yes, I must say that it has. I have accessed a counsellor and I know the NHS are supporting staff that the resources are there. I just hope that people choose to access these services, because everybody needs a little bit of support from time to time I think even more so now, with what were dealing with day in day out. You can only process so much on your own or with your colleagues, and its not good to just keep burying things away, because one day it will come back out.

Were always in PPE now. The masks are tight. They rub. We do have barrier creams and little wound dressings that we can put beneath the masks to stop them rubbing our faces, but but they still hurt. And weve got these long gowns on all day, which are hot. You cant hear anything, either, so you cant communicate properly. Having a normal conversation through a vizor and mask it really hard. You feel like youre always shouting. I sometimes think that when I come home, Im still shouting! It makes the job so much more difficult, and its more tiring as well, wearing PPE.

I think psychologically we do need this easing of restrictions. I dont think people can continue with the measures that were imposed. They were quite rightly strict, but there has to be a little bit of easing up now.

I do think that the majority of people have been amazing they have really stuck with the hand washing and the social distancing. I just think its now really important that we continue with it and not lose sight of the fact that COVID is still here.

Its really important that we continue with it and not lose sight of the fact that COVID is still here.

Of course, some people are also asymptomatic they might not know theyve got it and I think thats where the difficulty comes from. Seeing those pictures of people on the beaches recently was hard to see look at. I do understand peoples frustrations, but we all have to realise that the threat is still here, and we all have to take a little bit of responsibility. Its vital that we all keep following the Government guidelines of hand washing and social distancing. The guidelines are there for a reason.

Last updated: 11-08-2020

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