Coping with COVID podcast

In this episode, Helen is joined by Luke, a junior doctor who worked as a sub-FY1 in the NHS at the end of his final year of medical school. We talked about what it’s been like, the things that have helped him to cope, and the importance of looking out for each other. If you’re a medical, nursing or AHP student, and you’d like to talk on the podcast about your experiences of working or studying during the COVID-19 pandemic, please get in touch with us. Contact us at: [email protected] If you need support, here are a few of our recommendations: School of Medicine Wellbeing Team (for medical students at the University of Liverpool) [email protected] University of Liverpool Student Support Services (for nursing, allied health and other students at the University of Liverpool) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/studentsupport/ Employee Assistance Programme (for staff at the University of Liverpool) https://staff.liverpool.ac.uk/our-workplace-and-community/support-and-development/employee-assistance-programme/) NHS Staff Support Line https://people.nhs.uk/help/ Samaritans free phoneline: 116 123  [email protected] www.samaritans.org

In this episode, Helen is joined by Luke, a junior doctor who worked as a sub-FY1 in the NHS at the end of his final year of medical school. We talked about what it’s been like, the things that have helped him to cope, and the importance of looking out for each other. If you’re a medical, nursing or AHP student, and you’d like to talk on the podcast about your experiences of working or studying during the COVID-19 pandemic, please get in touch with us. Contact us at: [email protected] If you need support, here are a few of our recommendations: School of Medicine Wellbeing Team (for medical students at the University of Liverpool) [email protected] University of Liverpool Student Support Services (for nursing, allied health and other students at the University of Liverpool) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/studentsupport/ Employee Assistance Programme (for staff at the University of Liverpool) https://staff.liverpool.ac.uk/our-workplace-and-community/support-and-development/employee-assistance-programme/) NHS Staff Support Line https://people.nhs.uk/help/ Samaritans free phoneline: 116 123  [email protected] www.samaritans.org

In this episode Suzi speaks to Tom West, head of operations in one of the University’s institutes, about how he changed how he consumed news, after finding it was impacting on his mental health. This includes an exploration of the evidence around how news can affect us, strategies he found worked for him, and how the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with these. Some useful links: Here’s the initial findings from the UCL study Tom mentions “Increased time spent on following news about COVID 19 predicted declines in mental health and wellbeing” https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.18.20177345v1 Which is taken from a whole amazing longitudinal research study, with regular reports on the data along the way: https://www.covidsocialstudy.org/ A couple of articles on why we tend to view the current state of the world more negatively, but view the past through a positive bias, which makes us feel that everything is getting worse, and the role the news plays in this dynamic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/why-2020-feels-like-the-worst-year-ever/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/201909/how-negative-news-distorts-our-thinking Also, for people who are trying to engage critically with the news in an age of relentless conspiracy theories https://www.snopes.com/ is an excellent fact checking website. It’s quite heavily US-orientated, but it’s a great way to very quickly check whether a wild claim is true, and undertakes some excellent analysis of the origin and spread of certain conspiracy theories (https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/10/15/film-your-hospital-the-anatomy-of-a-covid-19-conspiracy-theory/)  

In this episode Suzi speaks to Tom West, head of operations in one of the University’s institutes, about how he changed how he consumed news, after finding it was impacting on his mental health. This includes an exploration of the evidence around how news can affect us, strategies he found worked for him, and how the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with these. Some useful links: Here’s the initial findings from the UCL study Tom mentions “Increased time spent on following news about COVID 19 predicted declines in mental health and wellbeing” https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.18.20177345v1 Which is taken from a whole amazing longitudinal research study, with regular reports on the data along the way: https://www.covidsocialstudy.org/ A couple of articles on why we tend to view the current state of the world more negatively, but view the past through a positive bias, which makes us feel that everything is getting worse, and the role the news plays in this dynamic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/why-2020-feels-like-the-worst-year-ever/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/201909/how-negative-news-distorts-our-thinking Also, for people who are trying to engage critically with the news in an age of relentless conspiracy theories https://www.snopes.com/ is an excellent fact checking website. It’s quite heavily US-orientated, but it’s a great way to very quickly check whether a wild claim is true, and undertakes some excellent analysis of the origin and spread of certain conspiracy theories (https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/10/15/film-your-hospital-the-anatomy-of-a-covid-19-conspiracy-theory/)  

Suzi and Helen look back on the highlights and challenges of starting a podcast in a pandemic. Find out why we created the podcast, what we’ve learnt, our plans for the future, and how this podcast has helped our mental health. We love hearing your feedback, ideas and questions: our email address is [email protected]

Suzi and Helen look back on the highlights and challenges of starting a podcast in a pandemic. Find out why we created the podcast, what we’ve learnt, our plans for the future, and how this podcast has helped our mental health. We love hearing your feedback, ideas and questions: our email address is [email protected]

Medical students and graduates share what they wish someone had told them when they started medical school. We’ve made this episode particularly for the first-year medics starting University during COVID restrictions, but I think it’s useful for us all to reflect on what we’ve learnt about looking after our mental health. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in audio clips for this episode. Also, Dr Luke Flain for finding contributors, and Dr Suzi Gage for editing. If you’d like to get in touch, our email address is [email protected] If you need support, here are a few of our recommendations: School of Medicine Wellbeing Team (for medical students at the University of Liverpool) [email protected] University of Liverpool Student Support Services (for nursing, allied health and other students at the University of Liverpool) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/studentsupport/ NHS Staff Support Line https://people.nhs.uk/help/ Samaritans free phoneline: 116 123 [email protected] www.samaritans.org

Medical students and graduates share what they wish someone had told them when they started medical school. We’ve made this episode particularly for the first-year medics starting University during COVID restrictions, but I think it’s useful for us all to reflect on what we’ve learnt about looking after our mental health. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in audio clips for this episode. Also, Dr Luke Flain for finding contributors, and Dr Suzi Gage for editing. If you’d like to get in touch, our email address is [email protected] If you need support, here are a few of our recommendations: School of Medicine Wellbeing Team (for medical students at the University of Liverpool) [email protected] University of Liverpool Student Support Services (for nursing, allied health and other students at the University of Liverpool) https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/studentsupport/ NHS Staff Support Line https://people.nhs.uk/help/ Samaritans free phoneline: 116 123 [email protected] www.samaritans.org

In this episode, Helen is joined by Dr Richard Latten, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Deputy Director of the Wellbeing Team at the University of Liverpool School of Medicine. Richard talks about his experiences working clinically during COVID-19, including uncertainty, the different phases of the pandemic, and a request from a patient. If you’d like to get in touch, our email address is [email protected], we’d love to hear your feedback. The BPS briefing paper on psychological responses in healthcare staff during different phases of the pandemic is available here: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/psychological-needs-healthcare-staff-result-coronavirus-pandemic

In this episode, Helen is joined by Dr Richard Latten, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Deputy Director of the Wellbeing Team at the University of Liverpool School of Medicine. Richard talks about his experiences working clinically during COVID-19, including uncertainty, the different phases of the pandemic, and a request from a patient. If you’d like to get in touch, our email address is [email protected], we’d love to hear your feedback. The BPS briefing paper on psychological responses in healthcare staff during different phases of the pandemic is available here: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/psychological-needs-healthcare-staff-result-coronavirus-pandemic