Anna Caffarey, Acting Surgical Matron, tells us how they have been dealing with Covid-19:
Clandon Ward is usually the regional Head and Neck Surgical ward caring for patients with Head and Neck Cancer and ENT and Maxillofacial emergencies. The ward staff are a fantastic group of conscientious, kind and caring individuals, who are dedicated to ensuring their patients receive the best care possible.
They were the second ward in the trust to start taking Covid patients, and are now managing patients requiring Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) which is a completely new skill for all the staff. The whole team have done nothing but embrace this new challenge with support from the physiotherapists and the respiratory nurses, and are now managing two bays of patients requiring CPAP.
I am so proud of how they have taken on this new challenge. As a team they are fantastic at supporting each other, always ensuring they get adequate breaks from being in the CPAP bays and doing extra shifts to support each other.
For any other team having to undertake a new challenge such as this one, if you all pull together you can do it. There is nothing like a team that supports each other, they can achieve anything.