CASE STUDY NHS NURSE
WHEN the pandemic started, NHS nurse Josie Hitchen was taking a career break.
In fact, she was in Bali, training to be a yoga instructor.
“I flew back into lockdown and responded to the fast tracking route on the NHS Professionals website,” she explains. “This took me straight back onto the ward at my local hospital in Middlesbrough as a nurse.”
Soon afterwards, NHS Professionals sent her email about openings for contact tracers. She said: “Public health promotion has always been something I’m interested in so I applied and I got a position.” She started training immediately – this involved everything from understanding the coronavirus to familiarising herself with data protection and the various systems used in tracing.
“I was also lucky enough to be involved in some roleplay calls before the system went live.”
Josie now mixes nursing shifts with contact tracing shifts.
She has children and her husband is currently away. Her mother is a designated carer for her youngest (the others can go to school as she is a key worker) but the flexibility of shiftwork suits her well and fits around her family life.
She has already contact traced
NHS nurse has already contact traced 10 people.
10 people. Josie said: “You log on to details such as where they’ve been, various systems and you get assigned who has been in the house with them, cases. Then you run the record where they’ve worked and so on. of the patient to get a bit of their People can fill these in this information and prepare yourself. questionnaire themselves, but not Next, you call them, explain who you everyone has a smartphone or is are, where you’re calling from, what comfortable doing it unassisted. The contact tracing will do, how it can average call takes about 45 minutes. help prevent the spread of the virus Josie said: “I’m really enjoying it. and ask if they’re happy to proceed.” It’s been very interesting to learn
Next, the tracers take them about the coronavirus and the through a questionnaire on a systems we use and I’ve had lots of government website. This asks for positive feedback.”