Back to Practice with Covid-19

Direct contact finally made this morning as promised in yesterday’s phone messages. I have a phone-back slot arranged for the early afternoon. Undertook a thirty five minute interview with a former senior colleague to get back onto the staff bank. Much of it was spent in formally establishing my right to work in the UK(!), my right to work as a registered nurse and health visitor, my prior and current skills, my present health status, my families health status and finally what hours and in what capacity and location I would prefer to work. In summary it looks unlikely that I will have any direct face to face Covid-19 work offered. It is far more likely I will be shoring up community child health services in some way, shape or form. The interview concluded with an offer to return to NHS Lothian on a fixed term contract until the end of July pending follow up of references. There are still some administrative and induction tasks to get through which will hopefully be ...

Well serves me right for living out a troglodyte existence in basement flat entirely shielded and secure from external communications! As those of you who know me will attest, there is no mobile phone signal capable of penetrating our subterranean dwelling. Perhaps I could sell up to one of those unfortunate people who feel the need to cover the whole of their house in tinfoil to stop radiation leaking in (see for example the character of Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul)? S o today I missed two phone calls from NHS Lothian and only got the voice messages through at about six thirty. How annoying. I would really like to have got at least one of the calls . Both were from a former senior nurse in the organisation who presumably has been tasked, at least in part, with the role of slotting the ragtag bag of returnees who have responded locally to the call, into suitable positions. I hope that she will call again tomorrow morning and with that in mind I will be leaving my pho...

Day off from the blog yesterday to experiment with uploading a video log or Vlog in case that’s the easiest way to create something in future. Looks like it is possible but it will be raw and unedited unless I learn how to edit video in the next few days. Meanwhile there is definitely a twin track approach to getting back to work. As I mentioned earlier I have applied to NHS Lothian Staff Bank and expect a call from them early this week to take the application further. There is also a national process through the newly created Health and Social Care COVID-19 Accelerated Recruitment Portal which promises a fast track method to match my details to workforce requirements. I have sent my details via this route and have no doubt that someone will be in touch to take this further too. Hopefully both routes can merge at some point over the next few days. Certainly the local staff bank route should allow me fairly rapid access to undertake some basic online orientation and edu...

Finally have some news to blog about. Three emails from different parts of the return to work process in the healthcare system. Progress. First was an email from the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) confirming my (re-)registration onto the Covid-19 Temporary Register and asking that I complete a return to work survey. I’ve even got my old original NMC PIN number! The NMC survey was online and straightforward, asking if I still wished to return to practice, about my most recent area(s) of work and job location(s) in the NHS and about what aspects of care I am willing to be involved with at this time such as face to face; telephone advice; co-ordination, etc. I have indicated a willingness for any of them. Secondly I received a n email from NHS Scotland Recruitment the summary subtext of which is “blimey, there’s a lot of you people out there willing to come back and while we are very grateful we are also rather overwhelmed. We’re doing our best in unprecedented time...

Liked the 8pm applause for health service workers.  Took part in our own street here in Leith and there were plenty neighbours participating. Good to hear.

Perhaps I'm not just retired but also redundant? In fairness I imagine the NHS have quite a number of names, with a wide range of backgrounds and skill sets to sort through and assess before they contact, train and allocate. Meanwhile for those of us currently complying with the limitations and restrictions on movement and activities, the new slow pace of days is quite relaxing. At least so far...

Apart from the ramped up social distancing instructions nothing much new to report on the blog today. Still awaiting initial contact from NHS Lothian to begin in earnest the process of assessment, allocation and training for wh ich ever area I am asked to go. Had the suggestion of some media interest in my return to work but that has not yet come to pass either. Better if they wait until I have some progress to report on. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy a couple of pictures of a child's artworks left at various points along the lower reaches of the Water of Leith where I undertook a wee bit of socially distant walking earlier today.

I received an email acknowledgement from NHS Scotland this afternoon. They tell me that my details have been forwarded to NHS Lothian. My guess is it will take them a wee bit of time to work out how best to use the rag-tag, mixed-up jumble of people looking to return to help out. I imagine they will have a fair few potential returnees to process and assimilate. And it will be interesting to discover how they will go about assessing how I, and others, might be put to best use.  Hopefully I will start the practical process of actually returning before the end of the week. 

I thought this would be a quiet day, a short blog, with little to update beyond a photo of my new raised beds at the allotment. However the blog appears to be actually read by some people. Who knew. Raised Beds I had expect ed to be contacted early next week by NHS Lothian to discuss where I might be of most use. But in the interim a former colleague, alerted at least in part by this blog ha s been in touch to ask if I would consider going back in some capacity to my old area of community nursing and health visiting. I have always been clear that I am happy go wherever NHS Lothian think I can be of most use in this time of imminent crisis, whether that is as a basic grade staff nurse in a clinical setting or back in role I have more experience of and with a less atrophied skill set. In the former I would require some good basic learning and shadowing opportunities to return to a ward setting. Less would be required in the latter if I am of use in a previously familiar ...

Spent some time online this morning formally responding to the NMC to confirm that I wish to join the new Covid-19 Temporary Register and also emailing NHS Scotland with my details and my request to rejoin. This was preceded by a 7:15am telephone call on my landline which I presume was a text message and mentioned Covid-19, an application, and a series of digits. At least I think that’s what it said. I was not quick enough  or awake enough to understand the automated voice or to take a note of th e message and I don’t know whether it was from the NMC, NHS Scotland or NHS Lothian or somewhere else . Anyway I am unable to retrieve it or listen again. If it is important h opefully they will email or SMS text the same message. It did make me go back to review yesterday’s application to ensure I had not got my numbers twisted but I have given my home and mobile numbers – and in the correct box es .  Otherwise quite a quiet day spent trying to neither catch nor spre...

Okay, day one of my attempt to return to nursing following three years of retirement. First a wee bit background. I retired from the NHS just over three years ago after a career as a nurse, health visitor, public health practitioner and clinical nurse manager. I enjoyed all of my roles in the NHS , some more than others and liked the vast majority of the colleagues I worked alongside and the clients I worked with. However I have also absolutely loved retirement. I did a very small amount of bank health visiting immediately following retirement but found that it interfered too much with my retirement plans and activities. And then along came coronavirus, or s evere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and its consequence, covid-19 – the worlds first full blown pandemic for over 100 years. And so I thought, what could I do? I am no longer a registered nurse or health visitor. My registration having lapsed at the end of January 2020 and I had not considered renewing ...