We are all facing an incredibly strange and difficult time. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (known as COVID-19) has leapt on the world, and left us all baffled as to how life has changed and is going to change.
I am not an epidemiologist. I’m not a virologist, nor an immunologist. I’ve certainly never had prior experience of a pandemic in working life before. COVID-19 is everywhere we look, and its socioeconomic, emotional and terrifying effects have been devastating.
I am in no way qualified to talk about the diagnostic and treatment strategies our human medic counterparts are having to use, and I certainly don’t want to excessively contribute to the mass hysteria the UK has shown in its response.
However, given all the negativity we see on our social media, news and in pretty much every aspect of our new daily life, I thought it would be prudent to highlight some of the positives we can try to take from this experience. What follows is an opinion piece, based entirely on my own thoughts and beliefs, and I am more than happy to discuss, as always, over email.
Praise our NHS
For as long as I can remember, our NHS has been criticised. The UK public, in true fashion, like to complain about prolonged waiting times for routine appointments and surgeries, or about the delays when visiting A&E. You name it, we’ll complain about it.
But wow. The strength and unity our NHS has provided during this outbreak has been outstanding. I know many of my veterinary colleagues wish they could be doing more to help human health in these tough times, but I do not envy our human counterparts. Yes, you can argue testing has been delayed, or our lockdown was implemented too late, but despite all of this our NHS has worked tirelessly to fight where it can, and to do the best it can.
I think most people will agree we were not prepared for COVID-19. At short notice, the NHS has recruited thousands of retired staff who are risking their lives with more risk of exposure. Orthopaedic surgeons have been taken away from their duties and undergone crash revision courses on how to treat pneumonia patients.
We can all sit here and joke about how specialised our human counterparts get, but even after three years as a small animal vet, I couldn’t deal with a horse with colic.
Doctors undergo rigorous training during their specialisation for a number of years – you’re bound to forget a substantial amount that you don’t use on a daily basis. Orthopaedic doctors being asked to treat a patient with pneumonia is like asking me to remember how to do differentiation and integration from A-level maths; yes, I knew how to at some point, but that is far from my limited memory now.
We should be thankful for the sacrifices our health care system is making. It cannot be easy for someone at the top of his or her specialised game to take a step back and say “okay, teach me”.
Of course, it is more than just orthopaedic surgeons making sacrifices here. Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, physician assistants, pharmacists, radiographers, paramedics – this abbreviated list goes on (apologies if I have not included a specific role) – they are all putting themselves at increased risk for the greater good and, unfortunately, some truly horrifying sacrifices have occurred. From the bottom of my heart, I cannot thank our health care system enough for what it is doing in these unprecedented times.
Chameleons
We are adapting, there is no doubt about it – the veterinary profession is doing its bit. We have been forced to shut our doors and embrace telemedicine. Business owners have had to put aside profits and finances. The RCVS and BVA have worked rapidly to provide us with guidance.
We have come together to offer our personal protective equipment, ventilators, injectables, clinical services and much more to fight the seemingly ever‑growing battle against COVID-19.
Before I go on, let me preface with some context. I am in an incredibly lucky position to be employed by an academic institute on a postgraduate programme, and have accommodation and a stable salary. I have not had to face the same challenges as many of you, and I can only hope those reading who are struggling are managing to keep their head above the water – both financially and emotionally. If you are struggling, I would urge you to contact Vetlife or another similar organisation.
According to the Government, I am classed as a vulnerable individual due to underlying asthma, which I receive a number of medications for. Recently, I developed a new cough and, as a result, isolated for seven days. Prior to my return to work, I was told I was going to be working from home as it was the safest thing for me to do until Government recommendations change.
As a result, I’ve been manning our phone triage system, along with two other interns, for the first opinion emergency service at the RVC – trying to minimise the footfall in our hospital.
I am honoured to work with a cohort of interns who have been putting themselves at risk to provide emergency care to those in need. Although frustrating and isolating, I am safe in my room while others put themselves at risk, and I can only thank them.
It has made me realise something, though – I do not enjoy telemedicine. As I’m sure many of you will have experienced, it presents its own unique challenges – not least that we have 100% client interaction and 0% animal.
With the severity of the consequences of people travelling, we have to be incredibly strict as to who we decide is urgent or emergent enough to commit to an in-person consult. I would like to think I am pretty adept at history taking now, but it’s been amazing to see how much I’ve struggled without my number one diagnostic tool – the physical exam.
I’ve written recently about how I’ve felt my intuition improving when it comes to performing a physical exam – now that seems to have disappeared. I think it goes to show how skilled the veterinary profession is – after all, patients can’t tell us what’s wrong.
It doesn’t stop with telemedicine or increased biosecurity practices, though. Veterinary staff were actively being asked to join the NHS on the front line (Westgate, 2020), and I know there would have been no shortage of our incredible profession willing to have done so.
We all have our part to play in this pandemic, whether being furloughed and asked to stay at home, providing emergency care to pets who cannot fight, or joining our colleagues in the NHS as the highly skilled professionals we are.
Social distancing
You’ll probably see streams of social media posts about how much time everyone now has to work on themselves, a project or new hobby. Yeah, this is a great time to try to get self-care in, but, equally, we are facing a global pandemic. If you put on a few pounds, who’s going to care? If you don’t suddenly decide to learn the flute because you’ve got time to do so, who’s going to care?
This is a time to be kind to each other. Whenever I have a conversation with a grieving owner going through a huge amount of emotional stress, I don’t say – now you’ve got time to pick up a new hobby. I say: “Take your time. Everyone deals with grief in different ways, and there’s no one right way.” This is no different.
We all deal with stress differently. More power to you if you’ve gotten your isolation Joe Wicks fix and can now do backflips and one-arm press-ups – but if you can’t, don’t worry.
On a more positive note, I have been astounded by the adaptation to – and acceptance of – new methods of socialising online. At the weekend I enjoyed, a little too much, a socially distanced Bongo’s Bingo over Zoom; it was great fun.
It’s funny how these times have helped many find new connections or renew old ones. While we will all miss that physical contact of a hug or a high-five for a while, it is so much nicer if we embrace the technology we have and video call our old friends, rather than allowing social distancing to become social isolation.
Again, on a lighter note, I for one have enjoyed how the supermarkets have been, now things have calmed down a little and people aren’t stocking up on 50 toilet rolls. I have found my limited interactions with people outside to be quite pleasant. If you’re out on a walk, people actually say thank you when you pass. At the supermarket, people are queuing quietly and calmly. Perhaps, after all of this, people of London may realise you can actually avoid walking directly into someone…
Recommended resources
During these tough times, I would like to point out a couple of useful resources that have been put together at short notice (again, this is a limited list, so apologies if I’ve missed something):
- The BSAVA Triage Tool for cats and dogs – a fantastic piece of work that has been put together by specialists in their field on common emergencies and approach to phone triage. I would highly recommend this. I wish I’d had this as a new graduate on call. Visit www.bsava.com/TriageTool
- RCVS Knowledge COVID-19 Resources – made up of several insightful webinars and other resources on how to improve biosecurity, how to look for the best up-to-date literature and a host of useful links. Visit https://knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/covid-19
- Vetlife: COVID-19 and support for the veterinary professions – as aforementioned, Vetlife is there to help, and I am sure will also gladly receive volunteers. Visit https://bit.ly/3anpKiX
That’s all folks!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my non-political opinion piece on the pandemic. I hope you are all staying indoors when you can, washing your hands, and that you and your loved ones are safe.
Limit your exposure to the media, use your critical thinking skills to evaluate whether a source is reliable before sharing it and do what you can to help others.
Thank you to everyone who is coming together to help during these harsh and scary times.
It is likely COVID-19 is going to be with us for a while, and it would be contradictory of me to continue writing about it while simultaneously telling you to avoid reading too much about it, so I will try to avoid discussing it in future.
If you have a question or want to discuss a topic, feel free to drop me an email at dbeeston2@rvc.ac.uk and I will try get back to you ASAP. Until next time, take care.
from Vet Times
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