Today, 7 April, is World Health Day – the day to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives and remind world leaders of the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy. Nurses and other health workers are at the forefront of COVID-19 response, providing treatment and care, leading community dialogue to address fears and questions and, in some instances, collecting data for clinical studies. Quite simply, without nurses, there would be no response.
With this in mind, we wanted to talk to a former Lucid employee, Olivia Steele, who is now an A&E nurse on the frontline.
Olivia, first of all from everyone at Lucid Group, we’d like to say a massive thank you for everything you and your colleagues are doing – you are all truly remarkable and our heroes.
How is life on the frontline?
Thank you very much! Life is different at the minute as it is with everyone. The hospital I work in has significantly changed to accommodate the increasing pressures we are facing across the board and A&E in particular are focussing on starting patients down the correct pathway – COVID or non-COVID – to improve patient experience during a scary time by completely separating the department into two. Ultimately though, teamwork is everything. The importance of teamwork was most definitely something I first learnt during my time at Lucid Group. In fact, the power of good communication, being decisive and always referring to the best evidence were invaluable lessons learnt during my time in med comms. At this point I’d like to express how impressed and grateful I am for everyone involved in these changes and their work ethic, the NHS staff from doctors to housekeepers, the keyworkers including teachers, carers, bin men and supermarket staff.
If there is one piece of advice you could provide everyone with at the moment, what would it be?
I know you’ve all heard it all before, but the biggest difference you can all make is by following these rules: Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives. With this in mind however, I have one more thing to add. We have both COVID areas and non-COVID areas, so if you are experiencing life-threatening symptoms such as chest pain, please still come to A&E as you would have done before.
On such a poignant day highlighting the tremendous contribution from nurses and midwives, here are some key facts as specified by WHO – demonstrating why we all need to #SupportNursesAndMidwives:
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