Mobilising a workforce to combat COVID-19: An account, reflections, and lessons learned

Abstract

With the declaration of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic, intensive care units across the globe began to prepare for large numbers of patients. For many years, UK Intensive Care Units (ICUs) have been at high capacity, while facing staffing shortages. In order to prepare for the predicted increased work caring for large numbers with COVID-19, staff were redeployed from other clinical areas to help. Many of these staff had no previous ICU experience. In this article, we share our experiences redeploying medical staff from an extensive range of backgrounds, and how we utilised those staff to maximise use of their existing skills, together with reflections from a variety of redeployed staff members.

Redeployment and training of healthcare professionals to Intensive Care during COVID-19: a systematic review

“…Redeployment planning aimed to minimise training needs and maximise use of redeployed staff’s previous knowledge by placing staff in roles where their existing skills could be more easily transferrable (Doyle et al, 2020). A successful approach to redeployment was allocating redeployed staff to task-based groups, that is, multidisciplinary teams with clear leadership and constant communication, that aimed to complete a specific necessary step of intensive care when requested by experienced ICU staff (Doussot et al, 2020; NHS England & NHS Improvement, 2020a).…”

“…A successful approach to redeployment was allocating redeployed staff to task-based groups, that is, multidisciplinary teams with clear leadership and constant communication, that aimed to complete a specific necessary step of intensive care when requested by experienced ICU staff (Doussot et al, 2020; NHS England & NHS Improvement, 2020a). This represented an important shift in ways of working and understanding collaborations between health specialists (Doyle et al, 2020). There were benefits in some specialists taking over ICU roles, examples of this were Otolaryngologists examining epistaxis, peritonsillar abscess, and facial trauma (Shipchandler et al, 2020); experienced renal physicians, together with trainee Radiologists developing line-insertion teams, or Orthopaedists and Physiotherapists assisting with proning (Doyle et al, 2020).…”

“…This represented an important shift in ways of working and understanding collaborations between health specialists (Doyle et al, 2020). There were benefits in some specialists taking over ICU roles, examples of this were Otolaryngologists examining epistaxis, peritonsillar abscess, and facial trauma (Shipchandler et al, 2020); experienced renal physicians, together with trainee Radiologists developing line-insertion teams, or Orthopaedists and Physiotherapists assisting with proning (Doyle et al, 2020). Benefits included reduction of personnel required for procedures, reduction of aerosolization of the virus, shorter time dedicated to procedures, and minimal or no training required for them to assist.…”

“…A particular emphasis was made on learning needs related to PPE and infection control, especially during aerosol-generating procedures (D’souza et al, 2020; Doyle et al, 2020; Kuang et al, 2020).…”

“…Redeployment can be used to facilitate the daily work of Intensive Care Units (ICU) when implementing task-based models, where key tasks of patient care (i.e. hygiene) are carried out promptly by competent redeployed staff (Doyle et al, 2020). Staff redeployment can also help to address staffing gaps caused by staff sickness and previous vacancies.…”