REDPLOYMENT FEATURE
The ward is made up of a multidsiciplinary team of staff, including
doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants, an occupational therapist,
activity worker and psychologist.
Throughout my career as an occupational therapist I have worked
in a variety of different settings, but the area that I have found
most rewarding is older adults mental health, which has led me to
specialise in this area for the past four years.
When I initially began managing the ward at the start of the
pandemic there were a lot of questions from various members of the
multidisciplinary team around whether, as an occupational therapist, I
had the right skills for the job.
However, throughout my time on the ward I have remained
eager to demonstrate that leadership is not specific to a
profession and that, through using my skills, clinical background
and knowledge, I would be able to demonstrate that I could run
the ward effectively.
Of course, any new job comes with its challenges and at times I
have had to be flexible in managing the ever-changing environment
of a ward setting, alongside a new virus that there is very little known
about.
However, having a team of staff around me who support each
other and help to keep the ward running smoothly on a day-to-day
basis was a huge help.
One of the challenges I found particularly difficult was around
supporting staff to work through the COVID-19 crisis and manage
their anxieties.
Prior to the initial outbreak of the virus, there was a huge focus
on trying to safely discharge as many patients as possible from the
ward, as it was thought that if a patient was able to self isolate at
home, with the support of the community teams, this would reduce
the likelihood of them contracting COVID-19 and reduce the spread
around the ward.
However, it was also inevitable that with the frequency of
new admissions and changeover of staff that there would be cases
of both suspected and positive COVID-19 patients on the ward.
Therefore, as one of the two older adult inpatient wards in my
trust, the ward I was managing was chosen to set up an isolation
wing, where we could nurse patients who, secondary to their mental
health difficulties, had contracted a suspected or positive case of
COVID-19.
This scenario bought much anxiety onto the ward between both
staff and patients and part of my role was working with staff to
help them overcome this. Some of the ways in which I supported
staff included ensuring that all staff had the appropriate access to
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before being asked to nurse a
suspected or positive COVID-19 patient, ensure there was access to
rapid testing if staff presented with any symptoms of the virus, and
ensure all staff had access to supervision.
Not only were staff anxious, there was also anxiety among the
patients, many of whom were aware of the threat that COVID-19
posed to their health and what it would mean if they did contract the
virus. We had to work together as a team to reassure patients and
maintain a safe environment.
I found that even in the role of ward manager I was able to use
the skills that I have as an occupational therapist to help maintain
routine and structure for the patients on the ward. I was able to do
this by looking at alternative occupations and activities that could be
offered to patients with limited access to the outside world.
One activity that many patients enjoyed was having access to an
outdoor garden attached to the ward. This provided patients with a
range of different occupations, such as gardening activities, or even
just an open space to facilitate reading, painting and exercise.
As the restrictions began to lift and the ward had seen no new
cases of COVID-19 for at least four weeks, some kind of ‘business
as usual’ was resuming. However, many of the ways that we
worked previously now needed to be adapted to ensure both social
distancing and mask wearing became a routine practice on the
ward.
Another significant change was bought about following a meeting
with the divisional director of the service; we initially met to review
how I was getting on in the post and to discuss both the challenges
and the successes.
During the meeting I was told that the work that I had done in
managing the ward through the COVID-19 crisis had been extremely
impressive and had shown the value of occupational therapy, so
much so that the division I work for within the trust is now willing to
change the future job description for this post to incorporate both
nursing staff and occupational therapists.
Within the division that I work for there have always been
opportunities for occupational therapists to apply for management
roles within community teams, but the recognition for occupational
therapists managing within the inpatient setting is a new
development and one that is very welcomed.
I went on to share this development with my followers on
Twitter, to which I got an outpouring of support, not only from
fellow occupational therapists, but also from many other allied
health professionals, who shared similar experiences of leading and
managing wards.
As occupational therapists, we have transferable skills that allow
us to work in a variety of different roles, if given the opportunity. I
think that this experience has shown senior managers in my division
the value of our profession and how as occupational therapists we
are trained to be holistic in our practice, which ultimately makes us
great leaders.
I would encourage future applicants to posts such as this to
not feel restricted by what is written in the job description, but to
show how dynamic and diverse our practice can really be. I truly
believe that we will see will see many more occupational therapists
in leadership roles, because we are equipped with the skills to make
great leaders.
Olivia Hull, acting ward manager, Services for Ageing and Mental
Health – Pearl Ward, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust,
Highgate Mental Health Centre, email: [email protected].
Olivia returned to her substantive post as clinical lead occupational
therapist/discharge co-ordinator (SAMH) at the beginning of July
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