10/02/2021
My great neice.
BBC Radio 5 live My Covid Year: NHS front line
A-level student Sophie Davies, aged 18, is a young person whose life has changed completely since the pandemic started.
Last June, with the schools shut, she decided she wanted to do her bit and found a job as a domestic assistant at Glangwili Hospital.
She works in intensive care and A&E wards, serving food and drinks and cleaning and cheering up the patients.
"Just being someone they can talk to because they’re extremely lonely and we’re almost like family members to these patients," she said.
She's witnessed first-hand the stresses staff all go through. On occasions where there have been staff shortages, she's had to sit in a critical bay with a patient while a staff members collects something.
"It can be extremely exhausting for some of the staff members on the ward. If staff members have to go off because they’ve contracted Covid, there's been points when there’s just two healthcare assistants and two nurses on the ward
"Sometimes as domestics or porters or family liaison officers, we’ve got to step up and give that bit extra," she said.
Lots of Sophie's family members work for the NHS so she's been able to turn to them when she needs to let off steam.
"[I have] a good old chat with my Nan," she said. "She worked as an occupational therapist and she’s actually going back to work to give the vaccinations out.
"She's just so reassuring. She knows everything – like all Nans do!"
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