A nurse is proud to have set an unusual record in NHS Lanarkshire, for having changed jobs more times in the last 12 months than any of her colleagues.
Ashley Gardner has been redeployed to seven different roles in response to Covid over the last year; she was glad to have the opportunity to develop her knowledge and skills and to build strong relationships with colleagues across the health board.
While hundreds of NHS staff have worked outwith their normal roles during the pandemic – for example GPs redeploying into the Acute Respiratory Illness Centre and staff redeploying to work in the vaccination centres – Ashley has certainly had more variety than most of her colleagues.
Ashley usually works as a nurse in the Keep Well team, a very small nurse-led team who work with individuals and groups across Lanarkshire.
In the last 12 months however, she’s worked in teams sometimes for a week or two and sometimes for several months, including supporting the Incident Management Team in Public Health at Kirklands;
Contact Tracing with the public returning from international travel (Italy) in the early stages of Covid; and working in the Community Assessment Centre, Airdrie, in Test and Protect, Testing in the community, in the Acute Covid wards at Wishaw General Hospital and most recently, in Vaccine delivery.
She’s worked for NHS Lanarkshire for 3.5 years but says that the last 12 months have certainly been the most challenging since she qualified as a nurse in 2012. Reflecting on her experiences, she said, “I returned to my own job this week and am enjoying seeing my own patients again. Moving between teams was difficult and sometimes scary; new colleagues, new settings, new routines and then Covid on top of the changes. However, I feel I was very lucky; every time I moved to a new team they were very supportive and grateful for the extra help.”
Ashley particularly valued working in the Assessment Centre team at the start of the pandemic and says that while she’s had some very difficult experiences, she’s also had many positive experiences. She’s found the most valuable part of the many redeployments to be getting to know colleagues right across NHS Lanarkshire, “You’re meeting people you’d never normally come across which is really useful in my normal job.”
NHS staff are not the only people who have redeployed into other roles. A former police officer and a retired engineering lecturer are just two among dozens of people who have joined NHS Lanarkshire’s contact tracing teams in the last six months.
Kenny Rogerson, a retired police officer from Law near Carluke joined the contact tracing teams last October. Other people in Kenny’s family have at one time or another worked for the NHS – including in the old Law hospital – and he says, “In the current climate I felt I’d be making a useful contribution to the cause of fighting the pandemic. I’ve found the system of working and being part of a team – while working alone at home – much like working for the police: rules and systems to follow, dealing with the public, writing up reports and updating case notes and such like. It’s satisfying when you’re able to help or offer advice or reassurance to someone who is worried about Covid.”
Kenny, who served as a police officer for more than 30 years, says the most difficult calls he’s dealt with are calls from people who are suddenly bereaved, having lost a family member during the night to Covid. He continues, “One caller was obviously very upset and confused. Sometimes, if someone’s just been bereaved they can, quite understandably, be angry and upset but due to my experience in the police I’m able to deal with that.”
Mark Ingram, is a retired academic from New College Lanarkshire, who lives in Carluke and is also working as a contact tracer. Formerly the Head of the Faculty in Engineering and Automotive at New College he says he joined Contact Tracing having been inspired during the early part of the pandemic by the dedication of NHS workers, “I watched in awe at the amazing job our National Health Service were doing to keep us safe and save lives and felt a strong desire to help in any way I could.” Mark has been working as a contract tracer since September 2020 and he’s proud to be doing his bit to help reduce community transmission of the virus.
While he’s had some very challenging phone calls to deal with, Mark says overall he’s found the role extremely rewarding: “I get a great deal of satisfaction at the end of my shift knowing that I have played an important role in helping people to self-isolate safely and reduce the number of potential people who may have caught the virus otherwise. Most people I talk to have been very helpful and supportive of what our team are trying to achieve. During each call I make it feel as though – for a brief moment in time – you are part of someone’s family, talking about their partners, children, and friends. What they work as, what their day/week has been like, how they’re feeling, their worries and concerns. You try and work with them to reduce the risk of onward infection to their family and friends and keep them safe. It is like no other job I have ever done before.”
Speaking about the many staff who have redeployed during the last 12 months, as well as about those who have joined Contact Tracing and Vaccination teams, from outside the NHS, NHS Lanarkshire chief executive Heather Knox said:
“As we mark the anniversary of COVID-19 arriving in Scotland, I’d like to thank NHS Lanarkshire staff for their flexibility, dedication and resilience in the face of this unprecedented challenge. I’d also like to acknowledge all those who have joined our ranks to help keep all of us safe. We’ve had nearly 38,000 cases in our health board area alone, but that number would have been much higher had it not been for the unswerving patience and sacrifice of the community, who saw their NHS change so much in the last year and helped us, by sticking with the restrictions.”
