The only induction I would recommend to a friend.
Me, yesterday, even before we got the toiletries goodie bag!
I don’t know about you but I’ve been to many a pointless induction in my time. The induction to NHS Nightingale London was revolutionary in that I came away from the day feeling buoyed up, supported and educated. The 300 members of faculty and all of the volunteers that come together to provide this day should be highly commended for putting together such a quality education program in the space of a couple of weeks.
We learnt about the workflow of the hospital, some basic life saving (BLS) skills for Covid-19 patients and how to put on personal protective equipment correctly in order to enter the ICU. Teaching us about applying PPE was a senior surgeon. They described in the introduction about how the “usual hospital hierarchy has been completely flattened” but I didn’t believe it until this surgeon explained very patiently about how exactly we should go about doing up ties on the gowns and putting on gloves so as to protect ourselves and our patients as much as possible!
The most refreshing aspect of the course was the acknowledgement of how working at the Nightingale will affect our mental wellbeing. We had a session on “Psychological PPE” in which we talked through what might trigger negative emotions, our coping mechanisms and the resources in place for us. It was open, honest and completely welcomely not just a tick box exercise.
The session concluded with one of the leads taking the time to tell us that if the day had made us feel overwhelmed or now unable to fulfil a volunteering role, no one would judge us. Just turning up was something and whether we feel able to work within the ICU in full PPE or whether we return home to ring up a lonely friend, we are all doing our bit.
"You're obviously not a scientist" 