"I think differently about disease outbreak management as a result of my experiences in global nursing"
We caught up with Marc Robinson from the Royal London Hospital who shares his experiences in global nursing and healthcare and how that has influenced his current work during the COVID -19 pandemic.
Tell us about your background and experiences.
The majority of my NHS career has been spent working in critical care, and a lot of that at the Royal London Hospital, with experience also gained at in critical care at Great Ormond Street Hospital and at UCLH. I have also recently finished a secondment in the RLH A&E as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner.
My primary role is as a senior clinical site manager at RLH, but for the duration of the pandemic I have been redeployed back to support the Adult Critical Care Unit.
I also have an additional specific skillset, which was developed outside of the NHS. Throughout my career I have been able to undertake and gain experience in global health nursing and expedition nursing, across a variety of projects. I have been lucky enough to have been supported by Barts Health to gain many postgraduate qualifications in both fields.
I am experienced in dealing with infectious disease outbreaks overseas along with capacity building projects. As for expeditions, I have provided expedition medical support to charities providing youth development projects and adventure trips at sea for people with a variety of physical abilities, along with teenage survivors of cancer. Last summer I was a medic for an organization of environmental scientists researching the rainforests of Borneo. These can be for one week to six months in duration and I continue to encourage more nurses to engage in expedition healthcare. It has enriched my experiences endlessly.
Now my NHS and global work are coming together. During this pandemic, I feel more than ever that my varied experiences will help me, our staff and patients.
Most recently, I was deployed as a part of the United Kingdom Emergency Medical Team as part of UK AID responding to the deadly measles outbreak in the pacific island of Samoa. There are so many lessons to be learnt from these types of experiences and I would like to encourage more nurses to seek out these types of opportunities. There are many training programs and organisations you can plug into to get started. Like expedition nursing, participating in global health nursing now comes in a whole range of sizes – so that you don’t have to make a long-term commitment. I would encourage nurses to look at these opportunities to support their NHS careers.
How have you received support to fulfil your aspirations in working abroad?
There has been a lot of support alongside culture change over the years. Barts Health and a variety of wonderfully encouraging line managers like Alison Forde have supported me through this. Back in 2010 it was a different story when it came to getting time off, but now it is encouraged. I am now able to give back my experiences to the Trust and our patients.
My experience of global health nursing and expedition healthcare has resulted in frequent trips overseas, which requires supportive teams and flexible working.
How did you originally get into it? What type of opportunities are available?
I was very much an outdoorsy kind of person growing up and I wanted to know how I could combine my healthcare career with a desire to work outdoors. To begin with I took annual leave, short breaks and unpaid leave from work to facilitate this.
Barts Health agreed to support me with opportunities like being a member of the UK Emergency Medical Team (UKEMT). This is the forefront of the UK response to a natural disasters and humanitarian crises overseas. I know that the nursing leadership across Barts Health is keen to encourage staff to think about and participate in this kind of work should they have the desire to.
I think that the perception is that non-governmental organisations require you to take a year off to join in. You don’t have to do longer projects to have an impact - now you can do shorter trips. My advice would be to never underestimate the fact that you’ll learn more from people you meet as a nurse and professional in these situations than you expect.
I went to Sierra Leone post-Ebola and learned so much from the healthcare staff there. In contrast, taking a group of young scientists to rainforest in Borneo as an expedition medic really helped me develop my coaching and people development skills. I’ve been involved as a medic in some high impact projects, including helping to create a clean water resource for remote villages in South America. Mostly I like to work in the tropical rainforest/climates, but over the last few years have developed myself as a seafaring medic, everyone should go to sea at least once in their life no matter the physical, developmental or mental health challenges and differences they may face – this work has been some of the most personally rewarding for me.
There are a broad range of opportunities available to nurses - I encourage you to look into the options. It’s enriching to you and your career and there is growing support to enable staff to have these kinds of experiences.
What lessons are to be learnt for the time of covid-19 from your experiences? What have you observed?
It brings home health inequalities - people appreciate the resources we have here.
I have worked in some areas of the world there is only one nurse for 20,000 people. These are amazingly resilient people. I learnt more about resourcefulness - my experiences abroad taught me to think creatively and how to be resourceful in challenging circumstances.
Nothing could truly prepare use for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic - and I think differently about disease outbreak management as a result of my experiences, which is helping my NHS work.
In terms of staff well-being - we need to look at how this pandemic impacts ourselves and each other. There is so much work going on to support everyone - we should use this. So many lessons can be learnt from the global health communities and Barts Health is embracing that.
In the clinical environment we all have or will at some point felt overwhelmed. It’s important to communicate your feelings and support each other. There are so many people you can reach out to, including me, and you are not alone.
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