“It felt like coming home” – Barbara Day speaks about her redeployment experience in our Intensive Care Unit
Barbara Day, Head of Professional & Practice Development at UHDB has been redeployed to help support Intensive Care Unit colleagues throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.
Barbara qualified as a nurse over 30 years ago and has helped out our colleagues in ICU throughout the first and second wave.
“Before I did my first shift, I barely slept at all because of the worry, but actually, within half an hour of being on the ward, it felt like coming home. The team are wonderful and they have surpassed everything that I expected and I am very much enjoying my redeployment experience.
“I feel honoured to be asked to come back and to be welcomed back in to the department to help during difficult times. The whole experience has reminded me why I became a nurse in the first place, and that’s to make a difference.
“I was very scared and nervous, and I have 24 years previous experience in ICU, so I can’t begin to imagine how nerve-wracking those colleagues must have felt who have no previous experience in ICU. The educators and team have been phenomenal. The support they have provided to me and other colleagues that have been redeployed has been incredible.
“The whole experience has made me realise how fantastic it is when departments work so closely together when we need to. We’re better as a team, we’re stronger as a team and we work incredibly well as a team”
If you’d like to share your story with us, email uhdb.communications@nhs.net