I’m Cathy Whittaker and I’m one of the nurses on the In-Patient Unit here at Trinity. I wanted to let you know how this crisis has affected us nurses working directly with our patients, and how closely we feel the value of your support.
We’re very conscious about making sure we get the care right; that we treat every patient as a person who deserves peace and dignity in their final days and hours. We’re all local people too; these could be our mums, dads or siblings we’re caring for. Here on our In-patient Unit, where I work, that’s made so much harder when we have to wear all the PPE and keep our distance.
For all the nursing teams it's really, really hard. But we're doing our very best.
All of us are anxious, every day, about keeping safe ourselves; about not transferring the virus to our patients or taking it home to our families.
We’ve become so much stronger as a team I think, because we’re there to support each other. We’re in daily contact after work on phones or video and it really helps to be able to share an worries with a friend.
We’re all a little taken aback to be honest with the level of visible support we’ve received. We can all hear the clapping on Thursdays, whether we’re working at the hospice or at home. It’s very emotional. We’ve had lots of food sent in for us too, and we had more Easter eggs than you can imagine! Local schoolchildren have made rainbow pictures for us all, which we’ve hung up all round our nurses’ station at the hospice. It’s helped to make it a really bright, colourful area for us. All these contributions mean a lot. They all help and we’re all grateful, if not a little overwhelmed.
But we’re all aware that we are only able to carry on this difficult work if we keep getting financial support from local people in our community. So, if you can help us with our emergency appeal, I urge you to do so. Thank you for whatever help you can manage. I know we’ll get through this, together.
Please keep you and your family strong and safe.
