The Nurse’s Plea

So you might think that in the midst of a lock down I would have plenty of time to be creative, to write, to put my thoughts to pen and paper. However I do not, because my day job is one of those that means I do not get to stay home safe and sound and write to my heart’s content. For as well as being a writer I am also a nurse, a community nurse, the other front line that tends to get forgotten about. (Hospitals are fighting this thing tooth and nail, but the District Nursing Team is right there with them).

It is hard to be creative in a chaotic world and despite the somewhat quieter roads to work, there is still that element of chaos, not just in my head. This crazy time we all find ourselves in has shown the best and the worst of humanity. There are those people out there who seem to believe they are invincible, that they could not possibly be effecting anyone else and that this virus is not going to get them because they are not “old, don’t have underlying health conditions, etc etc” But that is just not the case. We are seeing more and more healthy people succumb to this, it takes no prisoners. Every day I see my work colleagues and friends who are working tirelessly in other parts of the health service get up and go out and risk both their health and that of their families by doing the job that they love in order to keep others safe, to hopefully get them on the road to recovery or to just treat their normal every day ailments, because we are the only ones who can.

It is too easy to forget others, the health care support workers, the canteen staff, the cleaners. the back bone of the NHS who keep the rest of us going and the same goes for the outside world. It is easy to forget the other people out there who may or may not get this horrid virus because “hey you are invincible right?” You could not possibly be carrying it around with you as you don’t have any symptoms…wrong. The fact is you don’t know. So why are people risking their lives and that of their children to sunbathe, to take a trip to the seaside or the park, because you are not the only ones (sadly) who had that same thought. The sun will still be there tomorrow, you however may not. This sounds like a bit of a rant, and maybe it is, at stupidity, at the human race’s belief that it is somehow suddenly omnipotent, it’s the big guy on campus…I wonder if the dinosaurs thought the same thing and we all know what happened to them.

I know many people effected by this virus, I know people who have lost loved ones because of it, I see people who cannot grieve for their losses with their family and friends because this virus also robs them of that, it robs us of each other. When all we need is a hug and close contact with the ones that matter, it steps in and says nope, not unless you want to be gambling with your life too and despite this, I am still waiting for that light bulb moment when everyone suddenly gets it. This is not a joke, its not a holiday. People have lost lives, they have lost livelihoods, they have lost… everything.

You don’t have to be empathetic to feel the tension in the air, the collective anxiety and worry that surrounds me on a global scale is astronomical and I am wondering how I am staying sane. It is an undercurrent, as I ride this storm with everyone else. Whereas some are trying to steer away from it, my colleagues and I are sailing headfirst into it and it is terrifying but it is what we do. I have no time to think about all the things this virus has done to my own world right now, my only focus is on my patients, my team and my family. I am trying to be the smile, the positive light in the darkening sky, please do not be the rocks we have to try to avoid as we ride this storm. Be the calm in the distance and give us the tools we need to fight.

Stay safe everyone and let’s hope for calmer waters soon

#Coronavirus #nurse #writer