Weighing Up the Risks and Moving Forward
Certified Instructor and Subject Lead for Mandatory Training, Jack Anniky, tells us how they moved forward with training at St Andrews Healthcare.
In a strange way, delivering MAPA® training during these Covid times has been both completely alien and just a continuation of how life was before.
Our charity made the decision that during the pandemic we were to continue delivering initial MAPA® courses for our new staff to give them and the wards the required skills to maintain the Care, Welfare, Safety of Security of patients.
More than ever before it was important that the wards had the correct mix of skills with the looming threat of staff shortages due to the pandemic that was sweeping the globe.
When the pandemic first hit, it was initially hard for me as I wrestled with my own fear and anxiety alongside the need to deliver training courses that involved interaction with up to 10 people a day, in extremely close proximity.
Measures were introduced and social distancing was in place at all practicable times. Not being able to see friends and close family while also on the other hand being so close to strangers was a bizarre feeling!
My fears were allayed, however, when I realised how important a role I had as a facilitator. Without the ability to give staff MAPA® skills and insight, the wards would have been in an even worse situation. The risk of wards filled with staff not trained in MAPA® far outweighed that of Covid itself.
Throughout the hospital infection control measures were put in place; the mandatory wearing of masks, enforced social distancing, removal of tables in areas that didn’t require them to reduce the amount of areas Covid could be transmitted to etc.
Staff weren’t all able to work from home, else we’d have no one available to provide care to our patients; life within the charity had to continue as close to normal as possible.
One positive to come from this year has been witnessing first-hand the way in which staff have adapted and even thrived in the most challenging of circumstances.
New ways of working and facilitating have been created to ensure everyone is able to access learning and development. These new methods of working won’t be forgotten in the years to come as we develop ways of living with Covid-19, and because of that I feel immensely proud.