Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:42:49.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 47 - Case Study 3: Lessons from Delivering Support for Staff Working at the Nightingale COVID-19 Hospital in London

from Section 5 - Sustaining and Caring for Staff During Emergencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2024

Richard Williams
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Verity Kemp
Affiliation:
Independent Health Emergency Planning Consultant
Keith Porter
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Tim Healing
Affiliation:
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London
John Drury
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Get access

Summary

The London Nightingale was designed to be the largest field hospital in UK peacetime history. It was built in a matter of weeks on the site of an existing exhibition centre, with a final capacity planned for 4,000 intubated patients who had COVID-19, and 16,000 clinical staff. Supporting the mental health of its staff was a key element from its inception, with a specialist team engaged to create and implement an evidence-based, tiered, occupational health model. The emphasis was on minimising distress and moral injury, and maximising post-traumatic growth through a rapid, de-medicalised, forward psychiatry model that encouraged return to work where possible. The London Nightingale was fortunately never required at anything near its capacity, but the mental health team was operational throughout its life, and openly disseminated its standard operating policy and learning to other UK hospitals, many of which used it as a template to design their own.

Type
Chapter
Information
Major Incidents, Pandemics and Mental Health
The Psychosocial Aspects of Health Emergencies, Incidents, Disasters and Disease Outbreaks
, pp. 355 - 359
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Tracy, DK, Tarn, M, Eldridge, R, Cooke, J, Calder, JDF, Greenberg, N. What should be done to support the mental health of healthcare staff treating COVID-19 patients? Br J Psychiatry 2020; 217: 537–9.Google Scholar
Mulligan, K, Jones, N, Woodhead, C, Davies, M, Wessely, S, Greenberg, N. Mental health of UK military personnel while on deployment in Iraq. Br J Psychiatry 2010; 197: 405–10.Google Scholar
Greenberg, N, Docherty, M, Gnanapragasam, S, Wessely, S. Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ 2020; 368: m1211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Opie, E, Brooks, S, Greenberg, N, Rubin, GJ. The usefulness of pre-employment and pre-deployment psychological screening for disaster relief workers: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry 2020; 20: 211.Google Scholar
Jones, N, Campion, B, Keeling, M, Greenberg, N. Cohesion, leadership, mental health stigmatisation and perceived barriers to care in UK military personnel. J Ment Health 2018; 27: 1018.Google Scholar
Jones, N, Seddon, R, Fear, NT, McAllister, P, Wessely, S, Greenberg, N. Leadership, cohesion, morale, and the mental health of UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Psychiatry 2012; 75: 4959.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Milligan-Saville, JS, Tan, L, Gayed, A, Barnes, C, Madan, I, Dobson, M, et al. Workplace mental health training for managers and its effect on sick leave in employees: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Lancet Psychiatry 2017; 4: 850–58.Google Scholar
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. NICE Guideline [NG116]. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2018 (www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng116).Google Scholar
Greenberg, N, Langston, V, Jones, N. Trauma risk management (TRiM) in the UK Armed Forces. J R Army Med Corps 2008; 154: 124–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenberg, N, Brooks, S, Dunn, R. Latest developments in post-traumatic stress disorder: diagnosis and treatment. Br Med Bull 2015; 114: 147–55.Google Scholar
Rona, RJ, Burdett, H, Khondoker, M, Chesnokov, M, Green, K, Pernet, D, et al. Post-deployment screening for mental disorders and tailored advice about help-seeking in the UK military: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2017; 389: 1410–23.Google Scholar
Woodhead, C, Rona, RJ, Iversen, A, MacManus, D, Hotopf, M, Dean, K, et al. Mental health and health service use among post-national service veterans: results from the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of England. Psychol Med 2011; 41: 363–72.Google Scholar
Solomon, Z, Shklar, R, Mikulincer, M. Frontline treatment of combat stress reaction: a 20-year longitudinal evaluation study. Am J Psychiatry 2005; 162: 2309–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patel, RK, Sweeney, MD, Baker, CSR, Greenberg, N, Piper, SE, Shergill, SS, et al. If not now, when? Enhancing cardiologists’ psychological well-being as a COVID-19 gain. Heart 2021; heartjnl-2020-318852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, N, Tracy, DK. What healthcare leaders need to do to protect the psychological well-being of frontline staff in the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Leader 2020; 4: 101–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, N, Brooks, SK, Wessely, S, Tracy, DK. How might the NHS protect the mental health of health-care workers after the COVID-19 crisis? Lancet Psychiatry 2020; 7: 733–4.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×