Ged Campbell has spent a lot of time in ward 7a of Dunedin Hospital.
In 2020, when Covid-19 first came to the south, he was acting charge nurse for what became "the Covid ward", and two years further on he is back as charge nurse manager, leading a team of about 40.
"I had actually left, but I came back to do the Covid thing again," he said.
"For the team, we are respiratory nurses, this is what we do: I know someone who is on annual leave and has generously offered to come back in if required to help out."
In 2020, Covid-19 was a new and largely unknown disease and every precaution was taken: patients who were awaiting test results were admitted to 7a, as well as those who were known to have contracted the virus.
"I know some staff members said when they were travelling in a lift downstairs and it stopped and other staff saw who was in it, that they wouldn’t get in with them, so there may have been a little bit of stigma then, but not so much this time," Mr Campbell said.
"It’s so widespread in the community now that no-one is stigmatising anyone who has it any more.
"I always say to our staff that we are in the safest place there is because we know that all our patients are positive."
Safety requires full, hot, clammy PPE for everyone, with all the awkward and time-consuming doffing and donning that requires.
"We are in full gear constantly so 7a is a safe place to be working," Mr Campbell said.
"It’s tiring, it’s not the most pleasant way to work, but it is what it is and we will carry on doing it."
Unlike in 2020, clinicians are now dealing with Omicron, which has proven vastly more infectious and meant 7a has many more patients now.
"We had 15 in yesterday," Mr Campbell said.
"It started off with dribs and drabs, one, two, three or four, but then it hopped up to about eight or nine, but now it’s at a minimum 12 and has gone up as high as 16.
"Looking at today’s numbers we still haven’t peaked yet, so we would expect that those numbers would rise, which is why we have a back-up ward."
Ward 7a can cater for 24 patients, although it can fit one or two more at a pinch.
"I think we would look at putting patients on the other ward before we got to that point, and split them up according to specialties and what their requirements were," Mr Campbell said.
The ward’s common areas are socially distanced and have good air flow to keep staff safe, and patients are in isolation.
While nurses tried to make the experience as easy as possible, it could be wearying on both patients’ mental wellbeing and that of the staff, Mr Campbell said.
"We are lucky that we haven’t had any deaths on 7a, but there is an element of that in any area of healthcare when you are dealing with people who are sick, your mood can get low," he said.
"For the patients, it is about dealing with the whole person and you have to be aware of how lonely it can get up here ... for staff, we have meetings every day where we discuss things and any issues which come up and we try to provide the best working environment we can.
"It is a cliche but it is a massive team effort, and the only reason we can do what we are doing up here is because of the work everyone else is doing out in the hospital and beyond."
