The Debrief

The reality is that frontline staff in many countries were abandoned during the first wave of Covid. Poor PPE, inadequate protections, and a seeming disregard for the views of those having to face the disease.

It's February 2020 and Covid has hit Europe. It's time to prepare. Some countries did and some didn't. Here's what it looked like in a country that did prepare well.

I know, we are all fed up with Covid. So fed up. But I sincerely believe we cannot move on properly until we face and understand the traumas caused by the early part of the Covid pandemic - the fear, the betrayal, the guilt. Once we understand what happened, it all becomes less traumatic and we can move on. It's time to debrief Covid.

Labour's first budget is promising. The recovery phase seems set to begin. Here I discuss how this will affect us on the frontline.

It's easy to accept a lower standard of care when we are under such heavy demands. Useful to be aware of this "decision drift" and the need to drift back to normal standards when you can.

It's useful to remind ourselves that the job is tough because ultimately we are good people who care about our patients.

It's important to realise that we all have limits. Recognising where your limits are and that they can change day to day is very helpful if you are working on the frontline of healthcare. Here we discuss managing your bandwidth

Few aspects of work affect the level of stress at work than management. Here, we discuss its impact and how to mitigate any harm associated with a dysfunctional management culture.

One of those rare moments when engaging with politics might actually make you feel better, more hopeful, and heard. Here I discuss what the Darzi Report means for those of us on the frontline.

Here we take a little look behind the scenes at those roles that don't get the glory but are vital to patient care.

With the unrelenting pace we have been working at it can be difficult to take some downtime or ease the pace while at work. Here I discuss the importance of slowing down when you can.

In this episode, we discuss one way to try and reduce moral injury and increase job satisfaction.

Part 2, on avoiding workplace conflict.

It's frustrating that those of us on the frontline have the least amount of say in how much capacity we have for the services we run yet still have to face all the frustrations when resources don't meet demands. In this episode, I discuss some ways to avoid taking such frustrations out on each other. Part 2 is out next week.

Sometimes we can't perform at the levels we've become accustomed to. More so now with the demands being so high. In this episode, I argue that sometimes it's ok to do the basics of the job and that we should still feel satisfied with being good enough.

A midweek clinical case. In this one, an elderly man shares how he felt during his near death experience.

Welcome to The Debrief - a podcast to try and help frontline healthcare workers deal with the heavy demands we face day in and day out. In the first episode, we discuss how far from 'normal' healthcare has fallen and why there is hope for the future.