I’d like to share this poem by Matt Kelly.

These past few weeks have been really hard for everyone all over the world. No matter where you live or how your health system is run, I’m sure you agree that carers everywhere deserve some respect. I work in a hospital and am a nurse. I have worked as a resuscitation trainer for many years now and have the utmost respect for all staff, not just the carers, who keep our NHS running.

It’s a scary thing to be at work in these times. I have been off work for a few weeks now recovering from a breathing problem. I have no idea if it was Covid or not as the UK are not testing in the community. I will do a separate blog post of my symptoms and the timeline for anyone who may be interested in tracking symptoms of possible Covid infection but that isn’t what this post is about. 

I returned to work for a day and then realised how difficult it was for me to maintain control of my asthma/post-infection residual symptoms. After a chat with my hospital’s very lovely and very busy Occupational Health team, it was a mutual decision that I should stay home or take Annual Leave for another week which is what I’ve done. 

For the day I was back it was very scary to be in the hospital environment. It is nigh on impossible to maintain a 2 meters distance from others on corridors and definitely not on the wards. I’m glad there is more PPE equipment available and hope that all those where I work stay safe. 

I want to share this poem with you (and not just because I love Christopher Eccleston’s voice);)