"The Covid-19 crisis has led to many changes in the trajectories of the students at Warwick Medical School from delayed Phase I exams to online graduation ceremonies - no student has been left untouched. Currently in Phase III of the medical programme, my friends and I were just beginning to look into our 2021 Elective when lockdown came into play; effectively pushing ‘pause’ on our plans.

Amidst the disruption to our course structure and ongoing uncertainty of the coronavirus, we were offered the opportunity to work as Care Support Workers across the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, University Hospital Coventry and George Eliot Hospital; allowing us to make a contribution to the pandemic in our own right. Since I live at home locally with family, one of whom has a higher susceptibility to the virus, I was placed in the Clinical Skills Department at SWFT - a lower risk environment with less clinical exposure than working directly with patients on the wards.

Starting out in my new role, I was really nervous as I knew I would be responsible for teaching a wide variety of staff, including newly qualified nurses, healthcare assistants, students, redeployed staff etc., and ensuring they reached a standard level of competency through my methods. However, after the first few sessions I was able to fall into my own teaching style (which is a somewhat informal session consisting of numerous bad medical jokes and light-hearted conversation rather than a lecture-style session). This has proven to be surprisingly successful and I have been humbled by the positive feedback received by some of the attendees after sessions. Not only has this experience been rewarding on a personal front, but it has allowed me to gain confidence in my own clinical abilities, including ECGs, Venepuncture, Cannulation, Blood cultures, Respiratory skills/Oxygen delivery, ABGs and more.

The past couple of months have flown by, and I can’t believe it’s already coming to an end! Working in Clinical Skills, I am definitely considering a future role as a Clinical Education Fellow and incorporating Medical Education into my future career. I am looking forward to restarting my clinical placement in Child Health on the 29 June (especially being able to talk to real patients instead of rubber arms and mannequins!) – although it will be strange being back on the other side of the teaching programme when my very own colleagues will now be training us in PBLS!

I have been able to appreciate what goes on behind closed doors with regards to the sheer amount of time and planning the Clinical Skills teams across the Trusts put in to ensure we receive top quality teaching; THANK YOU specifically to the Clinical Skills Team at Warwick for all that you do for us, and for making my lockdown experience so much brighter!"