NEWS
New occupational therapy team leads crucial critical care training
A new three-strong occupational therapy team in Royal Cornwall
Hospital’s critical care unit found themselves leading on crucial
training to support COVID-19 patients.
The team only joined the critical care unit in January, but just six
weeks after starting, the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Proning is a key support for people with the virus, where a
ventilated patient is moved on to their front. But it’s a treatment
method that takes eight members of staff, and with the nurses
and doctors busy with acute care needs, Sam Eperson, the
occupational therapy lead for critical care, took on the recruitment,
training and scheduling of a proning team.
‘It seemed to make sense that this came from AHPs, especially
from occupational therapists with our manual handling skills,’ says
Sam.
She quickly realised that a 24-hour rota would be needed,
requiring 200 staff to be trained in case of COVID-related staff
absences. ‘We had a brilliant uptake from all staff,’ she says.
‘While therapists provided most of the service during the day,
operating department practitioners and clinical imaging staff who
are here overnight covered the night shifts.’
Sam set up drop-in training sessions, including early morning
ones to meet with night shift workers, and created 30-minute
training videos to help staff refresh their knowledge.
Fortunately the service has not needed too much use, but the
service is now prepared in case of a second wave.
Elsewhere the new team has been providing training for other
inpatient occupational therapists on the impact of COVID-19
on patients to help them manage when patients came to them.
The training was streamed over Microsoft Teams so staff in the
community could find out more as well.
The team has also created a daily programme to support staff
wellbeing, offering staff time away from their work. The ‘Keep
Calm During COVID-19’ lasted 19 minutes each day, and was
initially offered through groups for activities like mindfulness and
art, and has evolved into packs that staff can take away when it’s
convenient for them. ‘It gives staff a chance to step away from the
patients and reground before going back out to treat the patients,’
says Sam. See more about building a case for occupational
therapy in critical care on pages 44 to 46.
The team practice proning
Employment needs discussed in RCOT’s Big Rehab Conversation
The latest of RCOT’s Big Rehab Conversations looked
at how rehab can help people get back to work.
Genevieve Smyth, RCOT professional adviser, said:
‘Employment and helping people back to work is an area we
know that occupational therapists can be really effective in.
As the furlough schemes come to an end and unemployment
levels are expected to rise, our skills are vitally important to
help people negotiate the barriers in getting back to work.
‘We discussed how employment needs are currently met
by occupational therapists. As always with our profession
there were a wide variety of ways of working, but a recurring
point was around the stigma that can be held by employers
for people with mental health problems – employers don’t
understand different conditions, and are unsure where to find a
trusted source to help them.
‘We also talked about working with national partners
to deliver services. That means not just charities, but also
statutory providers like the Prison and Probation Service.
‘And we also discussed how occupational therapists can
deliver their services in a way that is not just accessible, but
also helps disadvantaged
groups to improve their
outcomes and catch up
with other groups. This
is in part about race and
this is in a timely issue,
not just because of Black
Lives Matter, but also
because we know that
ethnic groups other than
white people have lower
employment levels – a fact
likely to be exacerbated as
unemployment rises.’
A summary of this and other Big Rehab Conversations will
be available on RCOT’s YouTube channel. For more on how
occupational therapists are helping people back to work after
COVID-19, see the feature on page 32. You can also find out
more about work through RCOTSS – Work, find out more and
join at: www.rcot.co.uk/work.
OTnews July 2020 9