When news of the pandemic first reached Julia Killen, a nursing student at Queen’s University Belfast, she was on placement in Uganda. The group of student nurses she was with weren’t particularly phased.
A: What was your initial reaction when you first found out about the virus?
J: “We were thinking; what is everyone at? It’s just a glorified flu! Everyone is being completely ridiculous… I had booked flights to Edinburgh to go see my friends as soon as I got home. But by the time we were got home we were like this is more serious. I arrived home on Friday 13th March and by the next Friday, we were in Lockdown.”
A: How were you approached about working during the pandemic?
J: “Queen’s were very clear that it is a risk but it’s completely your choice. There is no pressure on you at all to join up and go into a hospital. No one will think any less of you… For me personally, I would probably do it anyway because I just want to get my degree finished. Yes, it was scary but I wasn’t living with anyone vulnerable so if I got coronavirus I would be fine.”
A: Did the pandemic disrupt your academic year?
J: “Initially they talked about fast-tracking our graduation, like joining the register after 8 weeks if you felt confident. I’ve ended up just doing my 14 weeks placement. The trust have decided they’re happy to employ us as Band 4 so I’m just staying on to continue working and get some money… So actually my timeline has worked out exactly the same as it would be apart from finishing a week later. Being able to go out and do my management but getting paid for it – that is the dream. But at the same time they kind of need to pay us for it, because you can’t expect anyone to work during a pandemic for £430 a month, that’s 83p an hour normally.”
“I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing but I’m getting paid for it, which has been amazing.”
A: What kind of patients are you working with?
J: “I was actually on a Covid ward. The majority of students, I realise now, would not have had confirmed Covid patients. I’m in 7A, which is infectious diseases… so we have TB patients and there have been suspected Ebola patients. Our ward took on the first Covid patient in Northern Ireland.”
“The people who came to us were people that were too complicated for the temporary hospitals. They needed to be treated in a hospital but they had Covid. You can imagine that’s not a very high number… Now that the temporary hospitals have all shut down we are now back to being basically the only Covid Ward in the Belfast Trust. Now, we have 18 beds but 5 patients.”
A: Was it difficult to adapt to using the extra PPE equipment?
J: “In nursing, you’re with people who are sick all the time so it was actually laziness which stopped me from being hyper-cautious… The most frustrating thing, and we’re still dealing with it now, is in our ward all we wear for patients with covid is surgical masks, apron and gloves… But other people would come up to us and they would wear full PPE. We have all the equipment, but the policy is you don’t use it, you don’t need it. That’s what the guidance is. But then again other people, who aren’t dealing with it from day to day, are so scared that they don’t have the right things. If anyone should be wearing this stuff it should be us, not someone who might come into contact with a covid patient.”
“I stopped wearing a visor because I didn’t want to throw it out and feel like I was wasting NHS money. It seems like such an expensive piece of equipment, even though its only made of plastic. And it’s not very comfortable.”
A: How safe do you feel when you’re working and when you’re in public?
J: “In the infectious diseases ward, it’s one of the best wards to be on because they know what they’re doing. They deal with it all year round, every year… Not one of the staff in our ward has tested positive for coronavirus and we’ve been working with positive patients everyday for the past 3 months. We’ve always had at least one covid patient on our ward… It’s a different story with the general public. People don’t understand infection control, and I’ve seen it so much… Fair enough they haven’t been taught it and don’t experience it everyday like I do, even before coronavirus. But I do think everyone should be wearing a mask.”
A: Do you think your confidence has improved because of the increased risk?
J: “Knowing that I’m paid and knowing that we’re a team fighting against coronavirus has really helped my confidence. Everyone in a hospital works so hard. Being put under that pressure, I have just flourished so much. I’m not perfect, I’m nowhere near there, but it has really helped. I’ve learnt so much, I’ve felt part of a team, I’ve grown in confidence. The staff are all amazing, I love them all.”
A: What is the biggest challenge you have faced over these past months?
J: “The biggest challenge I have faced is not Coronavirus, it’s called working in a hospital, working in the NHS, being a nurse. I really appreciate the support, the claps, the free pizza, that is so nice and it does make me feel kind of good but we’re not doing something amazing. We’re not superheroes. We’re just doing our jobs and actually the harder days, the more stressful days, the days which have made me want to cry and just the normal days in the ward.”
“Long after the coronavirus is gone, all the NHS staff are working the exact same way.”
“When all of this has died down, when people begin to forget about us again, we are still doing the exact same things. We are still holding your relatives hand when they die, not because you’re not allowed in because of coronavirus, but because you haven’t got up on time or because they’ve died suddenly. We’re still the ones wiping an old man’s bum for the 50th time today because he’s been prescribed too many laxatives. We’re still the ones being verbally abused, physically abused, by some of our patients… I’d say only 10% of the NHS has been directly involved with coronavirus patients and the rest are just doing their jobs normally, and that’s the hard thing.”
A: How do you feel about the ‘Clap for the NHS’ Campaign?
J: “What frustrates me is everyone claps for doctors and nurses. What about health care assistants? I think they have a harder job than nurses and doctors sometimes. What about the people who make the food for the thousands of people who go in and out of hospitals everyday? What about the cleaners who clean out that covid bay before a new patient goes in? What about the physios, the OT’s, the porters, the Social workers have such a hard job! Especially people in care homes! They’re bigger heroes than anyone else because people are only in hospitals for a period of time, a care home is someones home! I think that’s just harder. Where are their claps?”
“I don’t want Joe Bloggs up the street to think I’m amazing. What we need is for the government to think we’re amazing. We’re not perfect and we do make mistakes so I don’t want people to think we’re amazing, but the government needs to step up and start rewarding the NHS.”
A: Do you have a final message you would like to share?
J: “We are just doing our job. We are doing the same thing that we’ve always done and will always do. In 20 years time it is still going to be such a difficult job. It’s going to be mentally and physically exhausting, but nobody is going to be clapping me or giving me free pizza. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m not appreciative of how lovely people have been, but also I think the government in particular need to appreciate what they have a bit more. The NHS is the best thing ever but it’s chronically underfunded, understaffed and it’s not going to be able to go on much longer like it is.”
Amy Murray
Images courtesy of Julia Killen, NIH Image Gallery and Adrian Roberts from Flickr.
Amy Murray
Hi! I'm Amy and I'm a 21 year old Journalism MA student at Ulster University, Coleraine. I am a Music graduate and I love writing culture and lifestyle stories.
Good honest journalism. Well done both