Helping a hospital stay orderly
Wendy Gibbins has spent almost 30 years working as an orderly, helping to keep Nelson Hospital running smoothly.
In that time, in which she jokes she has become ‘‘part of the furniture’’, nothing has changed her work the way coronavirus has. ‘‘I’ve never experienced anything like this, ever,’’ Gibbins said.
She leads a team of 14 orderlies at Nelson Hospital, a job that involves the non-medical care of patients, maintaining order and cleanliness.
The job involved fetching items, dealing with waste, transporting patients and taking specimens to the laboratories.
Since lockdown restrictions came into place, the team had been kept busy in different ways.
‘‘There have been big changes, from the volume of waste being produced in the hospital to waste needing to be collected from the community-based assessment centres. Everything is being handled differently, the processes are different.’’
An increase in the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) meant there was more waste than usual to deal with. With the main set of lifts closed for Covid-19 use, staff had to take different routes to navigate around the hospital.
While the hospital was closed to visitors, the orderlies were relied on to deliver personal property to patients on the wards, or escort them out if they needed to leave.
The visitor policy was revised on April 29 so that now one family member or support person could visit a patient at a time. The continued restrictions were part of measures all New Zealand hospitals were taking to minimise the risk of spreading the virus by reducing the numbers of people moving through hospitals.
Gibbins said it had also been important that staff felt supported in what was an unsettling time.
‘‘To have them reassured and feeling confident is important as it transfers through to the patients and makes them feel comfortable too.’’