Genevieve's story

Genevieve Irono
District nurse

“I work in the community, visiting patients at home. I have been a nurse for 19 years. I remember getting a call from a friend early into lockdown. He asked me, Why are you still going to work? I said, if I stop going to work, who is going to look after my patients? If all the doctors and nurses stop, who is going to look after the country?

The nurses were scared but we tried to support each other. Things were happening very fast. Places started shutting down, then we were told to use PPE, then people dying on a daily basis was on the rise. I realised – this is not a joke.

I remember going to assess a patient in a care home with symptoms of COVID-19. By the time I got back to the office there was a phone call from the team telling me that the patient had died. Oh my God! I knew he was dying but I didn’t think it would be that quick. The next day I had to go back to assess another patient. He also died.

I thought, this can happen to anybody. But that didn’t stop me because I enjoy nursing. I’m the clinical nurse lead for a team of nurses, nursing assistants and student nurses. We tried to reassure each other. We work in small neighbourhood teams so we are closer to the patients and can provide continuity of care.

Families couldn’t visit their elderly relatives during lockdown, it was awful. We try to put a smile on their faces. We do a lot, supporting patients, their families, and nursing them to the end. That’s part of our job.

Our staff were wonderful. We didn’t miss a single patient the whole time. I feel proud to be part of the team. Some staff worked from home but we couldn’t do that! We carried on with our work as best we could. The paperwork was reduced and that helped - we completed it in the office, after caring for the patient.

We had several referrals including a patient who had COVID-19 with a post-surgical wound that needed dressing. I thought, when does this end?  You take precautions and pray to be safe. There is nothing else you can do.

I remember visiting a patient who had dementia – she was in her 70s – her daughter was in tears. The daughter had lost her husband to COVID-19 two weeks earlier and now she feared losing her mother who also tested positive for COVID-19. Her husband hadn’t even been buried. I was very upset that time. You feel what they are feeling.

With the PPE, at first, there was confusion around when to use a mask. We were told to use the masks when we visited patients with symptoms. But how can you know if they have symptoms till you get there and can get the full story?

It was good when they allowed key workers to go to the supermarket first, before that sometimes I would turn back because the queues were so long.

My family were worried about me going to work. As soon as I got home I took off my clothes in the hallway and put them in a bag for washing.

I wasn’t sleeping well because I was worried about not waking up the next morning. The team was lucky to have a psychologist who gave us advice, including to stop watching the news, and there were posters on how to manage our mental health.  That really helped. I watched movies instead and went to the park for exercise to take my mind off what was happening. I educated my family to do the same.

My fear is: how long is this going on? When are we going to get back to normal? The whole world is upside down.”