One member of staff who has managed to balance the challenges of working in a full-time nursing role and offering her free time to help colleagues in the nursing and midwifery profession is Carol Gray, a charge nurse with the renal department at University Hospital Monklands.
In June this year, Carol became a volunteer call handler with Nurse Lifeline – the first national nursing and midwifery-led initiative to offer a free and confidential peer-to-peer listening service – by nurses and midwives – for nurses, midwives, health care support workers and their friends and families.
The service aims to encourage and amplify the voices of those within the nursing and midwifery workforce through sharing uplifting stories of those who have overcome challenges, and through creating a service that can be shaped and contributed to at all levels.
Carol said: “My role involves listening and providing peer support over the telephone, while ensuring that safeguarding and confidentiality standards are met. I’m able to signpost service users to other support services where appropriate.
“I’ve always found myself lending a listening ear, whether to family, friends, patients or colleagues. When I saw the advert for Nurse Lifeline I applied without hesitation, as I felt this could be the right path for me. After such a difficult and unsettling year for everyone in the NHS, I felt it was time for me to give something back and offer support where I could to my peers. We all need to stick together and help each other out where we can in such uncertain times.”
Carol added: “As challenging and different as my new role has been, I’m really enjoying being part of something so new and amazing and hope to help as many of my peers as possible. I would highly recommend the service to any of my nurse friends and colleagues, as we all need a chat and someone to offload to now and again. The staff are all experienced nurses and will understand where you’re coming from. I would encourage anyone in the nursing or midwifery profession to contact the service.”
If you are a nurse, midwife or health care support worker and would like to volunteer your time to the service, visit: www.nurselifeline.org.uk for more information.
To contact Nurse Lifeline, telephone 0808 801 0455, Monday to Friday, 7pm to 11pm.
