We transform our capability to help others

mª ester smith Nurse Bupa Santiago Hospital

I have two roles: paediatric care of straightforward cases and pediatric critical care unit, where the more complex cases are, as well as intermediate and intensive care cases. The usual paediatric patients were not coming in because they were shut up at home and weren’t going to their normal childcare facilities. The odd appendicitis case or child with fever would come in, or one who had fallen and had a brain injury, or other such cases. On 19 May, I was asked to set up twelve adult beds on the paediatric floor, which then became eighteen beds and by the end of the week was thirty beds. We did everything we could at the clinic to adapt to the needs of the patients during the pandemic. We needed to make ourselves useful. We were specialists in paediatric nursing, but our profession is one of service to others. We started refreshing our training so that we could look after adult Covid patients. In paediatrics, we are used to looking after patients in isolation all year round. In winter, for example, it’s the respiratory viruses. We were somewhat used to wearing aprons and gloves to protect other patients from viruses.

SANTIAGO — CHILE

We have always helped each other at this hospital. And that was what we did, help other human beings who might have been our relatives, our grandparents, our parents, a cousin, in their time of need. Our care is something practical and solid, such as the need to retrain for adult care. With Paola Vallarino, the training nurse, the whole intensive care paediatric team took a course in adult care and we designated nurses from the clinic to go and learn anything we still needed to know. At the same time, those of us in intensive paediatric care were sent to train in adult care. All of that happened at the beginning of April, and by mid-April 100% of our more experienced nurses and nursing technicians in the icu had been trained in the theory of caring for adult Covid patients. Basically, we all retrained. At first, the aim was to train at least 80% of the employees, but we managed to train 100%. Then we set to finding out what equipment and medicines we would need for adult patients. We found we would need larger endotracheal tubes, catheters and so on.

And that was what we did, help The adult team was almost 100% other human beings who might external and we worked really well together. have been our relatives, our At the beginning, nobody knew each other and we invented a code, coto: C stood for grandparents, our parents, a comprehensive patient care, O for organisation, cousin, in their time of need. T for teamwork and O for order. We did that to get the team working together, because we were all from different worlds and different clinics and we needed a common identity. We managed to really get a dynamic, united team going. We worked with strangers who were looking for an opportunity to work. And we went from less to more. My team would say: We are their family right now, which is why we like calls and video calls so much. We use the SAP system for electronic filing and we managed to include care therapy as a nursing plan of action. And we wrote it down to motivate people: Today Pedro spoke to his daughter. I am in leadership, but I also work alongside people a lot. We get together and talk: How are you? How are you feeling? And when I am really tired I tell them I am, because we are all in this together. Less than a month ago, quality management started a pilot scheme called Safety Pause, which is four safety questions asked of staff. One key question is: How are you at the start of this shift? Every day, in less than ten minutes, each one is asked to tell us how they feel at the start of their shift. How has this been for me? Well, my mother died in February. It wasn’t Covid. She deteriorated very quickly, was brought to the clinic and died in adult intensive care at the age of 88. That was very difficult. I live with my husband and my two children, Emilio, aged 13, and Josefa, aged 12. Our house has two floors, and they set up home on the top, whilst I lived on the first floor. My husband was laid off in March, in the middle of all of this. That was both a bad and a good thing. He helped a lot with the children and the house, and also retrained. He started cooking and selling beautiful things and is doing really well now. My children have seen how their mother is helping and are really proud of me. As my work is mainly planning, I didn’t feel at first that I was on the front line, but there came a time when I did. �