How our nurses overcome the elements to reach patients through the winter

How our nurses overcome the elements to reach patients through the winter

As part of the small Powys team who travel to homes over an area of 2,000 square miles, Senior Healthcare Assistant Barbara is no stranger to long journeys.

“Sometimes a postcode can take you to one of several farms over quite a wide area. If you just take the wrong road in the middle of the night it can be quite hard to go back on.”

“We’re a really well-gelled team and we support each other. We’ll pass on relevant information to make sure we all know about any hazards to get to a place, so we all know the correct way to get there.”

Navigating the night

Margaret Ann Norrie has been covering Argyll and Bute as a Marie Curie Nurse since 2009. While the roads and weather can be challenging, Margaret Ann and her team do everything they can to be prepared.

“I check Traffic Scotland to make sure I’m able to get to the shift. Social media helps too; I’m a member of the ‘Friends of the A83’ Facebook group so I know if the roads are shut.

“Up here the mobile phone coverage is often not good. If you were to break down you might have to walk to find connection. I always make sure I have a blanket, my walking boots and a big coat in the car with me.”

Barbara agrees, “I’ve always got one eye on the weather app. If I think it’s going to be particularly bad I might even go out in the day to check where it is I’m going. People might say, ‘the pink house’, I’ll say ‘well it won’t look pink at night!’”

A difficult transition

After a long, solitary drive, Margaret Ann takes a moment to get herself ready to begin her shift.

“After quite a bad drive up, when it’s windy and wild, it can be hard to compose yourself.

“You’ve got deer on the road up here, it’s quite quiet. It’s not unusual to drive over an hour for a shift, and then you go in and look after the family. Then you’ve got the drive home in the morning. Sometimes we go out to a shift and then when we come back there are six inches of snow.

“With the little cottages, people sometimes put fluorescent jackets on the fence posts so we can find them. When you’ve travelled such a long way they really appreciate the distance you’ve come. They know what you’ve done to get there.”

Keeping patients warm

Barbara takes care to make sure her and her patients stay warm through the cold nights.

“They’ll sometimes not have much heating in the house, so I’ll get some things like towels out of the airing cupboard to give them a bit of extra warmth on the bed.

“If I have to use my own blanket then I use my blanket.”

‘They welcome you in and treat you like family’

Despite the difficulties, Nurse Margaret says being able to see the effect her care has on patients and their families is well worth the extra effort.

“I’ve met so many interesting people. Getting to know them, being welcomed into their house at a very tragic time is highly emotional. They welcome you in and treat you like family."