Me, You and the Elephant in the Room
I want to break open the issues that people feel strongly about and bring them into open discussion regarding mental health and emotional wellbeing.
I want people to talk about the issues around children and teens and bring to the table their expertise and observations as to how we can really bring about change for them in the way we parent, care for, educate and support them.
I will also invite inspiring people with real stories of their own where life has taken them through horrendous times but they have shown it is possible to break through ones shit and really make change in one's life.
My interviewees will all be really inspirational people with a message who will be sharing the elephant in their room whether that is the reason for the work they do, what they have learned from their childhoods or personal experience and their own journeys.
Me, You and the Elephant in the Room
S1 E3 Deirdre McFarlane | Intensive Care Matron in Lockdown
In this episode I am in conversation with the deeply compassionate, driven Diedre McFarlane who is the Matron for Critical Care & the Critical Care Outreach Team at The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital which is part of one of the largest Trusts in the country, East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust (EKHUFT).
Deidre has worked in intensive care since 1988 and is passionate about delivering the highest standard of evidence based patient care whilst inspiring & developing staff for the future of not only Critical Care but the NHS. I have watched her commitment not only to her huge team of staff but to her family, and count myself immensely lucky that she is the mother of my equally wonderful daughter-in-law.
Deidre shares with me the inside details of what it has been like running a stressful, high-energy department throughout the pandemic, in a department that has increased tenfold in bed numbers since the arrival of Covid. What has it really been like for her and her team on the frontline of Covid? Join me to hear her fascinating, frank story.
Key points of the episode
- How as the lockdown progressed, things started to amp up to say the least....
- ....from A and E to intensive care (with only 9 beds)
- The incredible reshuffling with limited resources.
- How surreal it looked like a sci-fi movie!
- Staff losses through Covid.
- And staff that survived and are back at work with long Covid.
- The emotional impact on the families around them.
- How she feels about it all.
- Her thoughts on the needs for a thriving NHS,
Reach out to Tana and learn more about her work on
www.clearminds.org