International Women's Day
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we had to look no further than our very own hospitality hero, Amelia, who started with us in February last year and who is also a superhero staff nurse at The Princes Royal Alexandra hospital in Glasgow.
Read the full interview below:
Where do you call home?
I studied in Edinburgh and then moved to Glasgow and have been here for 4 years now so probably would call here home. Glasgow is definitely my favourite - Edinburgh has a better night out but Glasgow has better people I think (laughs).
2. What is your typical work day like at the moment compared to pre-Covid?
It was still intense but a lot more level and you felt a lot more confident in what you were doing. With Covid hitting and nobody really having been through a pandemic of this scale before, it has changed a lot of the way that things are done in health care. It also changes all the time as well because as the virus is growing and you’re learning more about it, there are different rules and regulations, advice and procedures that come with that. So it used to be a confidence thing - I know what I’m doing here but now with Covid you question yourself more and also the illness that comes with it is not something that can be compared with other illnesses; it can be a lot quicker, the symptoms can be different, it has been a complete learning curve.
We definitely had that attack of confidence in hospitality too: wanting to make sure we were doing everything we possibly could to keep everyone safe, making sure everyone - staff and guests, had complete faith in our procedures but doing that without losing the essence of why people come out to eat or drink - to have fun and escape a little. Having to build all of that with a set of very conflicting information was tough but I can’t imagine what that must have been like being right amongst it as a health care worker.
3. How did that feel and do you think there were any industry standards which have improved as a result of Covid?
The conflict was a big thing because the information we are given does change all the time and a lot of people say a lot of different things so it is a lot of checking up on what needs to be done. I think in any line of work you can see that some people with time or more confidence might pick up bad habits or become a bit more lax. I think the positive thing to come out of this in health care is that everyone will be a lot more thoughtful on maybe eradicating these bad habits and fine tuning their skills again.
4. Has there been a difference in approach between the old school and new school in terms of how the information has been processed or how things have been done?
I think it has actually been really smooth. There can be a big difference between old school nurses and newer nurses but everyone throughout this whole thing has joined together and has done their absolute best and it is really lovely to see because it has just felt like one massive team. Even though there are days that are so difficult to get through and you are not completely sure what you are doing 100% of the time, you can always ask other people and take a level of confidence from them. At the end of the day it is the other people on your team who get you through it. If you can’t have a laugh, you’re just gonna sink!
5. The clap that happened at the start of the first lockdown, how did that feel from your point of view?
I’m kind of in two minds - when it first started happening every Thursday, the first time I heard it, it was a really nice gesture. I actually got quite emotional because it was this thing nationwide that everyone got together and did the same thing for a couple of minutes to show their appreciation but as the weeks went on, I feel quite bad about feeling this way, but it did kind of lose it’s meaning. It was a really lovely gesture but I do feel like it was a bit of a kopout in the sense that it is nice to be appreciated, not just in health care - so many people are working so so hard throughout this but I just feel like rather than showing a small glimmer of appreciation every week at 8 o clock it should maybe be changed in paying a little bit more, making our conditions a little bit easier, not having to pay for parking - things like that. I think these things are great as long as they result in change.
6. Do you ever get angry or frustrated about the lack of care given towards frontline workers in general or does your love for what you do override that?
At the end of the day, it was our choice to do this job and we know what we are getting into. It is difficult but there are so many difficult jobs in the world and you can be frustrated, you can be burnt out and so upset when terrible things happen but it is about focussing on the positives - you can have a really bad day but at the end of it you are going home to have a shower in your own shower, sleep in your own bed and be around the people that love you which is more than you can say for a lot of the people you have been looking after that day. They could be there for days feeling lonely and isolated and especially now might not get to see their families.
7. Do you find it difficult not to take your work home with you?
Sometimes. I do struggle with that a lot. This may sound a bit morbid but especially when there are a lot of deaths you do feel a sense of heaviness and it is hard to shake it off. You have to train your mind to think ‘Okay, this has happened but I did everything I could for that person in their last moments’ and it is an honour to be there for someone in that way. It is a really intimate, personal thing. It is finding the balance between having these difficult things happening around you and being able to find the good parts in it. There are definitely more positives than negatives. Especially now, because of the way people have worked together and the sense of no matter what happens today you are all going to have a laugh, make a joke and even though we are all tired and are all pounding red bulls, we have forged some incredible friendships - we have been through something together that you wouldn’t have been through normally. It makes the friendships stronger and it just makes everyone a lot more personable with each other. You are all in it together.
8. How does working in hospitality and working in healthcare influence each other, positively or negatively?
I would say they are actually really similar in the sense that you are trying your best to make people comfortable. We as a team here have created this lovely little pocket of warmth and comfort and kind of like a family place to be in such a big community where we are welcoming people in - ‘this is our home, chill, have a seat, what would you like to drink?’
Let’s just sit and be with friends and family and people we love, enjoying ourselves in a nice environment. So you’re bringing people in to make them comfortable and happy whereas in the hospital, they are completely out of their comfort zone, they don’t want to be there, they are not with their friends or family or loved ones and it is about still trying to bring that comfort and to make them feel as happy as possible while they are in there - it does draw parallels between the two. You are trying to make people feel the best that they can in two very different environments but it takes the same kind of process. Also working with your team - we all work together to put a smile on each other’s faces as well as everyone that comes in here and it is the same in the hospital. No one person can do this on their own. It doesn’t work. We all need each other.
I think this goes for both healthcare and hospitality - it is almost like you have this background of anxiety built into you - I should be doing something every minute of the day otherwise my day’s not worth it. In hospitality and in the hospital it is long and hard and you are going so fast all the time and have so much mental stimulation you feel as though when you finally have free time you have to fill it up with everything you can possibly do. Anyone that works in any job that is demanding - you need to be able to know what your body needs and what you need and not feel guilty. It is about balance.
I feel bad when I’m not doing something. When I am flat out with work, my body might be sore and my mental health has taken a big hit but self love is something that a lot of us struggle with. If you say you deserve this rest it sounds as though you are almost being a bit selfish. It is finding out that you need this because if you can’t take care of yourself how can you make everyone who comes into the building feel comfortable and want to be here or how can I take care of patients when I feel as though I am going to drop any minute?
9. Do you think there will be any positives to come out of the last year?
I do think that there will be a lot of positives to come out of this situation, mainly the gratitude that everyone will have after this because I do genuinely believe that life can be as simple as you make it. I think we can get caught up in social media and how we look and how everyone perceives us and all of these everyday worries - things that we constantly think about as humans. I think there is an element of needing to prioritise and when something as huge as this happens, it does kind of help you to filter out the important things from the things you maybe used to worry about that don’t really matter anymore. Now it’s like, I am really lucky that I have a job or I am really lucky that all my friends are alive and healthy. I think at the end of this when things start to gradually go back to ‘normal’, we will be more appreciative of the people around us that we love and the things we are able to do.
10. Finally, have you got any advice for a young person who wants to get into healthcare or hospitality?
My advice to any young person who wanted to get into health care would be to connect with everyone around you and try to love something in everyone, to know they are a person and to wish the absolute best for everyone who comes into your life even if it is somebody that you pass at the bus stop or your taxi driver or the person at the checkout at the supermarket. If you have the attitude that we are all human, we are all the same, whether we like it or not we are all different but really all the same and as long as you wish the best for every single person that you come across, health care is not going to be a problem for you at all.
It is about empathy, about being able to put yourself in other people’s shoes in hospitality and in health care. If you walk into a bar or restaurant you want to have a great experience, you want to have fun and you want to be in this amazing atmosphere and for us provided that we need to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of everyone who walks through the door - what do they want, what can we do to give them the best experience that they could possibly have here and it is the same in nursing - I’m putting myself in this person’s shoes. They are out of their comfort zone and they’re alone and they’re scared and they don’t know what’s happening. You have to be able to think about what can I do for this person that I would want for me?