So I had my first 12 hour shift on an ICU (covid) Ward at a busy London hospital yesterday. Let me just first say that 12 hour shifts are tiring as hell and I have even more respect for nurses.

The good news is there were a lot of empty beds; also there was only 1 new admission in my 12 hour shift which I think is decent. The ward houses 35 beds and 10 beds were empty. I also had to do a lot of running around to other ICU wards to collect stuff....

... and a lot of the other ICU wards had quite a few empty beds. Obviously I can’t say whether this means that we simply haven’t hit our peak yet, or we have and there are less ICU admissions... I am hoping it’s the latter

important to note that the the hospital I’m at usually only has 2 ICU wards, they converted 3 other wards to cope with COVID-19, so in a normal situation, we would have well exceeded the ICU beds capacity; it’s due to reorganising and adapting that’s allowing for excess beds

in terms of PPE; truthfully, not as bad as I was expecting. We all had masks like this; some with ventilators. All had to wear the hair net. If you’re coming in contact with patients you wear a washable surgical gown and a visor. FULL PPE essentially

The issue is there are not enough gowns so you’re allocated a gown for a day... which as you can imagine isn’t really appropriate. Visors also not that many but we’re making do. Low on masks as well, so you’re discouraged from replacing your mask unless you HAVE to

In terms of the disease. I have good news and bad news. 4 hours into my shift; a patient in the bay I was looking after died; that was really depressing. Hearing the doctor discussing the situation with his family ~over the phone~ is just so heartbreaking.

That’s also the first time I’d seen someone die in a clinical setting so it definitely was quite upsetting. I was also left in charge of getting the body bag, and all the paper work. It really put into perspective how dangerous this condition can be.

Good news is, a patient was taken off a ventilator and was transferred to a step down, non-ICU ward.. so 1 recovery on my shift. I helped moved them down to their new ward and they looked in a good way, very promising that they’ll make a full recovery

It’s a scary disease because of how differently it affects people. I had a lot of lengthy conversations with my colleagues and we all agree STILL, the greatest failing is lack of early intervention and not nearly enough testing.

The team spirit in the ward is palpable. Everyone is helping eachother and supporting eachother; it’s just amazing to be part of. I love the NHS so much and I’ve always loved it; I’ve only ever worked for the NHS and I can’t say enough how beautiful of an establishment it is.

Another thing I’ve noticed; is there is still a big issue of equipment, we’re always having to borrow from other wards e.g. there’s only one BM (blood glucose) machine between TWO ICU wards. Do you know how ludicrous that is? In a pandemic!!! For us to be sharing like that

Unfortunately that’s nothing new and the NHS has always had equipment problems, infrastructure problems etc.. and this pandemic is just highlighting even more how much years of underfunding has affected it.

Anyways I’m sure there’s more stuff I could say but it was such a hectic interesting day and I hope I’ve said the pertinent things. I made this thread cos I thought it would be interesting; I hope it is! Any questions; DM me! I’m v happy to talk :))