Ive been employed with the NHS since 2001 from the age of 21 freshly qualified. My interest & passion always lay with mental health even as a student,
I’ve never looked back or ever considered leaving a job in mental health for the NHS.
Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic this year, I have been working for the past 6 years at least as a care co-ordinator in community mental health teams, many of which have undergone various transformations over recent years.
When I was told I was to be redeployed to the trust identified covid/isolated in patient wars, there was an initial sense of reservation & uncertainty, but more powerfully I felt it was my calling & duty. It was my responsibility as a NHS frontline key worker & I felt an immense sense of pride to be an active part of such a national crisis.
I had the privilege to be part of a wonderful team looking after acutely unwell people both psychiatrically & physically who needed us at their most vulnerable time.
I gained confidence in my ability to work effectively and autonomously as a professional clinician, gaining additional clinical skills & knowledge & utilising my established experienced and specialised occupational therapy skills.
I was redeployed to the inpatient ward within the trust, which was reconfigured to isolate those patients with suspected or confirmed cases of covid-19, and where possible, to provide separate facilities for this patient group.
I was redeployed from my substantive full time post as community care co-ordinator to support additional staffing needs of in patient wards.
Being redeployed, I felt pressure to effectively and quickly adapt and respond with multiple changes and innovations. I quickly had to learn & adapt to new & unfamiliar ways of working including reconfigurations of teams, including my substantive community team during my absence.
I felt extremely anxious & worried for my caseload of community patients whom had no prior warning or communication with or from me of these changes & my redeployment, which created great anxiety and sense of uncertainty for those clients & fragmented support in their care.