Out of retirement and straight into the challenge of a lifetime

Claire Roberts, 64, came to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn in 1983 as an intensive care nurse. She worked at Epsom General Hospital from 1991 to 2000 before returning to King’s Lynn where she was deputy director of nursing. She retired in 2018.

Staying at home was never really an option. After a career spanning more than 40 years as a registered nurse, the bonds that bind me are tight. Working in the NHS is like being part of a second family and that family and the community it serves are under threat.

I am a child of the post-war years and never lived through the tumult of war but I have a sense that this is what we are all facing now.

The coming weeks will test us all in different ways but for those in the NHS this will be the challenge of a lifetime.

Coming back to work is not without risk and I am very aware of the daily toll of staff affected by the virus. Many are fearful and anxious and yet they dutifully turn up each day to work in the most challenging of environments, exposed to risk on a constant basis.

This week I have been involved in swabbing and it is a testament to their sense of duty that staff are anxious to be tested so they can hopefully receive the all-clear and return to work.

Our daily virus numbers are steadily increasing. We now have two emergency departments, two intensive care units and an increasing number of wards caring only for Covid-19 patients.

Staff are being re-deployed and attending training sessions to learn the skills needed in this new world. Apart from urgent and emergency activity, everything else is focused on having the capacity to manage the expected influx of patients.

I hope that I will be able to make a meaningful contribution. I am not sure what that will be, but it will be a privilege to be part of this collective effort to weather the coming storm and save as many lives as possible.

There will be difficult decisions and much heartache but I know we will be focussed on providing the best possible care for our patients, their families and each other. The NHS may bend as the storm progresses but it will not break. Once we have reached the other side I will hopefully hang up my uniform again and slip back into retirement.