HEALTH WARNING

We are no longer updating our Covid-19 hub regularly. That includes this page. Click here for the latest.


 

Back on the Covid Ward, January 2021 - Day Three

28/01/21 . Blog

GUEST BLOG: Charlie is a nurse on a ward reopened to respond to the overload of the pandemic. Patients are at the stage before critical care although many need oxygen. These are her shift notes.


I woke really early again in anticipation of the day ahead.

A few patients are going home or to other wards - either step up to critical or intensive care, or a step down to a care home or non-Covid ward. But our ward is full again a few hours later.

Actually, we were really well staffed today and I was working with two registered nurses. It was so nice to be able look after people properly today. I de-matted a lady’s hair which was just as well as she went home in the afternoon. At the minute, I am looking after just one man. He has dementia as well as Covid pneumonia so can be a bit of a handful (to say the least) but it also means that I get to sit down for a bit.

Im so tired, though. It may be the effects of having Covid myself over Christmas. As well as wearing PPE all day. Maybe the stresses of everything Covid is getting to me like it is everyone else.

Also had some bad news today. One of my colleagues has died from the virus. Another one. Think I will stop complaining about work!

Got home and went to bed after a scrub down.

Read More

You can also read about Charlie's experience during the first wave in Spring 2020. All names have been changed.

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

Registered with the Fundraising Regulator