Reflecting on 2020 with EDEN
We have just said goodbye to 2020 and have welcomed 2021, but how has this year been from an EDEN perspective?
Here, our team have put together their thoughts on the passing year and share their reflections with us.
Foreward: Laura Willcocks
EDEN’s Lead for Healthcare Professional (HCP) Education & Training
2020: Looking back, looking forward
What a year. Elderly parents, clinically extremely vulnerable in the house, cancelled GCSE’s, family changes, and close patient work. That brought much emotion, even without the day job.
At the beginning of the pandemic came chaos, uncertainty, fear and stress for all.
What to do?
I take my vocation seriously and the love of my work meant I needed some help. I recalled the words of someone very impactful on my leadership development many years ago when she said in tough times you have to “Dig deep, and then dig some more... even when you think you have nothing left to give. Then dig again and give some more”
How apt, how true. So, what have we achieved and what have I learnt?
I’ve learnt that with a large team there is no off switch, no time to not be available or ready with an ear. Yet at the same time, being honest, vulnerable and open rewards the same from many.
Loyalty comes in many ways, and people frequently do surprise.
How much we miss the open plan, large bubbling office space we share and are creative together in, and how much time is spent on replying to and understanding email trails when a quick turn around and chat would have been just the ticket.
A team that supports each other, up, down, across, however it is cut, never more clearly demonstrated in the love and compassion to our team members supporting at the front line of health care and integrating on their wearied return – true grit and warrior like strength.
Education, while not directly saving lives on the frontline, brings vital skills to individuals and teams who are caring for people with health needs, and thus remains ever significant in the wider system.
That we move forward, are strategic and responsive, and that hard honest graft can break down traditional barriers and co create amazing change with partners across the system, to improve care for people living with diabetes.
A team that works hard together can still laugh together – coffee catch ups and shared socially distant office space is a luxury not everyone has access to, we are truly blessed by our environment.
Name and reputation go a long way, when built on solid foundations, and a resultant year that has been busier than ever, locally, nationally and internationally. New models of delivery – award winning digital programmes, posters, data and more.
What do I bring? I hope that I am the glue that binds us all, the Tigger who is repeatedly and unfailingly bouncy and the puzzle solver, knitting together the great practice and innovative ways of working that we create here at EDEN and the Leicester Diabetes Centre (LDC).
Am I grateful we have got to here? A resounding yes.
Am I proud to be a part of this outstanding infrastructure of LDC, and remarkable EDEN Team? You bet.
Bring on 2021.
Mary Harrison
Diabetes Nurse, Educator & Research Associate
2020 started like any other, but like everyone else’s, it was rudely interrupted.
We were already working on moving our EDEN content onto virtual platforms, so from this perspective we were ahead of the game.
As a former Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse I felt like I should be doing more to help, ICU was being overrun and I had the skills (although I was a bit rusty). I volunteered to help and after a one day refresher training session I was back on a shift at ICU, being fully redeployed there, full time, until further notice.
Some of the things I saw and did will stay with me forever. But I was glad I did it. I helped out, despite being very scared of many things (that I won’t go into). I also gained from the experience. My personal growth aside (and I was very proud of myself), I gained a clinical update (100mph but an update no less), I saw things that I warrant questioning with research and I saw things that will better shape the research projects I work on.
When I came back to EDEN and my research role, I found it difficult to adjust. The work didn’t seem as worthy, I couldn’t get excited or feel anything particularly about the work we were doing, it all felt trivial. But after a few weeks I processed what had happened and I got back into the swing of things again.
Then wave two came, I felt really conflicted and wanted to help ICU again, but it had taken a certain toll on my mental health and my family life (juggling shift work with two young children and no childcare was tough). Before EDEN I had spent the previous nine years as a clinical research nurse, so I knew I could help with the vaccine trials. This is what I am doing during the current wave of the pandemic, part-time work drawing up vaccine and placebo while continuing with my EDEN and research role.
I couldn’t have done any of this without the love and support of EDEN and the wider LDC, they looked after me and managed to stay in touch without overly bothering me when I was redeployed, which was no easy task. Enabling working from home and being flexible with hours has facilitated me surviving 2020 mentally. I will be forever grateful for the empathy and compassion shown by my managers as I struggled with clinical working, home schooling my eight year old with no childcare for my then three year old.
I have seen first-hand what can be achieved by my NHS family, nothing short of miracles. In many ways this year has shown me the best of people, but that said, I’ll be very glad when we can deliver diabetes education face-to-face, my research projects can recruit normally and my NHS family can get a break. We all need it.
Here’s to 2021, where we start to heal the hurt of 2020.
Much love,
Mary
Fiona Munday
Education & Research Associate
None of us have experienced a year like this one, how wrong was I, thinking that Covid-19 was just a storm in a teacup.
It has changed everything. We have all had to adapt quickly and we should commend ourselves for doing so. Our jobs hardly resemble what they were a year ago and we still miss the way it was.
No EDEN road trips, no large gatherings of health care professionals to teach and no professional conferences to attend or speak at. Instead, we speak into our laptops, record videos and present slide sets to only the brave who kindly switch on their cameras! We shout ‘unmute’ and wave bye-bye at the end of our meetings. It’s hard to believe that a year ago, we’d never heard of Zoom!
I have however, learnt and developed so much in this year and I know that I’ll be more appreciative of the simple things, like friends popping round for a cuppa, and hugs!
My EDEN family have been nothing but loving and supportive, and I’m truly grateful for this privileged position. And although we’ve been apart, we have grown closer, and the team has grown stronger. Team EDEN has definitely developed as a family this year!
It’s also been a joy to work with other members of the LDC. I’ve felt very honoured to work with such lovely and extremely gifted people.
I have hope for 2021. I’m sure that whatever our beliefs, we are all praying for a better year. I’m so encouraged by the rollout of a vaccine and want to thank those in the LDC who are working so hard on the ENSEMBLE2 Covid-19 vaccine trial.
And, once normal service resumes, I can’t wait for an EDEN road trip and for a Premier Inn breakfast again!
EDEN virtual training post Covid-19 pandemic
EDEN virtual training post Covid-19 pandemic
James Ridgeway
Education & Research Associate
2020: Every cloud has a silver lining.
The first year of our present decade was one which I will remember for the rest of my life. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused such an impact to our health and economy that I cannot imagine one individual has not heard or been impacted by it.
Much of the year has been spent working from home and supporting my 3 year old son at the same time, particularly through the first lockdown. This caused some impact to my work and home life with an added stress. However, the support of my manager Laura and other team members has been nothing but outstanding which I am so thankful for.
My work with EDEN has seen much change throughout the year. Prior to the national lockdown we provided most of our education through face to face training, traveling across the country to passionately educate healthcare professionals.
Sadly, our face to face training methods were required to be put on hold for the health and safety of ourselves and those that we educate. Despite this big change I am proud to have been part of a team that has since been focused on providing quality education through adapted methods, such as developing eLearning modules, infographics, recordings and webinars.
This positive focus really emphasised my team's values, and that no matter what happens we will still do our very best however possible. Drawing on the positives from challenges has been something which I have been able to apply myself to. Despite much of my work being from home with increased risk of feeling isolated from my other team members, the use of virtual technology has been a wonderful alternative way of quickly connecting.
Staying connected with my other colleagues has been essential in maintaining focus on tasks at hand and prioritising. As a result, myself and the rest of my team have been able to develop and produce some amazing educational materials. In particular for myself, the development of the EDEN Care Home Project called CARES. The project proudly won the 2020 Roger Gadsby award following positive educational audit outcomes showing decrease in hospital admissions for service users with diabetes, and financial savings to health and social care. Our passionate work in care home education has led to great new things to come for 2021.
EDEN face to face training pre Covid-19 pandemic