Covid-19: is Psychological Safety our secret weapon in teams?

Covid-19 is a threat to most teams and particularly to those delivering health care. Healthcare systems depend on teams working interdependently to coordinate safe care within a complex, high stakes work environment. So what gives some teams an edge over others? To understand this, we need to open the black box and recognise the nuances

2020: Stand Out Memories For Me

When we look back on 2020 in years to come, what will be our stand out memories? There will be a feature length episode of Reeling in the Years, that’s for sure! And there will be sad reminders of how many people lost their lives to COVID-19, how difficult it was for those working in

Jack Charlton’s Amazing Act of Kindness

Sitting on board an Aer Lingus flight in January 1996, I noticed Jack Charlton across the aisle from me. This was a significant flight for Jack, his final, emotional farewell voyage following his retirement as Manager of the Ireland team after nine great years in charge and three unforgettable major tournaments. I resisted the temptation

Staff Self-Care in the Context of COVID

Many disciplines contribute to the delivery of our Health Services, from primary care to acute hospital care. These include medicine, nursing, health and social care professions and pharmacy. As a hospital psychologist, I’m acutely aware of the additional ancillary disciplines, such as administrators, cleaners, caterers, porters, IT-experts, and security-personnel that also make invaluable contributions to

ESD: Our Virtual Transformation

The Early Supported Discharge (ESD) team in Cork provides specialised domiciliary stroke rehabilitation. As an integrated stroke service, ESD constitutes a vital rehabilitation pathway for stroke survivors facilitating patient flow through acute stroke units in Cork University Hospital, the Mercy University Hospital and St Finbarr’s Stroke rehabilitation unit since starting in 2018.

Major Surgery is Like Running a Marathon – Both Require Training

Prehabilitation is the concept of increasing an individual’s exercise capacity to physically prepare them for their upcoming surgery. The OpFit prehabilitation programme is a pre-operative exercise programme for patients who are scheduled for cancer surgery in St. James’ Hospital. We have based our programme on the current research on pre-operative rehabilitation, and also the Macmillan

COVID-19: Changing Contexts for Health and Social Care Professionals in Palliative Care

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary approach to care of people with active, progressive, far-advanced disease, for whom the focus of care is the relief or prevention of suffering.

COVID-19: From Zero to 6,000 in Eight Weeks

Hidden Health Workers Medical scientists are unique healthcare professionals. We play a pivotal role in the diagnosis of disease and treatment of patients. Yet, we never meet them, in fact, most don’t even know we exist. Although we don’t see the faces behind the samples, the patients are in the forefront of our minds in

Cardiac Physiologists – Coping and Adapting as a Team during COVID-19

Over the weekend, I reflected on the effect, dynamics and response of our team of 16 Cardiac Physiologists to these unprecedented COVID weeks. Anxiety, Communication and Self-care Given we perform and report cardiac tests on patients, there has been anxiety of contracting or passing COVID to patients, particularly during cardiac ultrasound, a close contact procedure. 

The Frontline as a Radiographer during COVID-19

I can distinctly recall the date of the first Covid-19 patient that was admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny. Ironically, it was on Friday, the 13th March, 2020. It was so rehearsed, systematic, an ideal scenario in fact – the patient was calmly examined in a dedicated isolation room. ‘Recent travel from China’ read the