Interview with Amy, IV Team
Name and role, please?
“My name is Amy, and I am an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) for the South Manchester and Trafford IV service. I’ve been working for the service for about three years.”
What was your background?
“Prior to working for the IV team here, I worked for the IV service in Stockport and Rochdale and Bury, so I managed that service. And then before that, I worked in renal medicine at Manchester Royal Infirmary for about ten years.”
What is it like working within this team and what is it like being in a community setting?
“The IV team is fantastic. Our service basically facilitates early discharge from hospital for anyone needing IVs or admission avoidance, so treating any infections in the community and avoiding patients being admitted to hospital. What’s good about the IV in Manchester is we work with the Crisis Team and we work with Discharge to Assess for all one big team. It’s really good if you’ve got an issue, say a social issue then you can refer to Crisis, and we all just work together as one team, all collectively.
What’s nice is we’ve all got each other and we all help each other out when we’re the days are difficult. It’s a good place to work, really.”
Challenges and rewards
“For the past two or three years of covid, staffing has been a big issue and at times, we’ve had over 60% of our workforce down. I’d say another issue is around patients that are very sick not wanting to go into hospital. So keeping them at home, as safe and comfortable as possible has been very challenging. Fortunately, we’ve managed to do it as safely as we can.
Because we are keeping them out of hospital, or we’re getting them out early, patients are very grateful. We very rarely get any patients that are not happy, and it’s just nice seeing them at home and getting better each day.
Also I need to mention this team — we all just look after each other. When you walk in, if you’ve been off for a few days, well, everyone’s so normal, And we’re all just like a family. It’s so important to have that, isn’t it?
We’ve got people from all different backgrounds, so I’ve got renal background. We’ve got Sarah from Infectious Diseases, Julie is a Physio, Doris has worked in Haematology — so we can deal with so many patient queries. We can all go to each other for advice. It’s a very knowledgeable team.”
What’s a good day like?
“I think I’d say a recent one — we had a patient that was an ex-IV drug user. They were septic and had pneumonia, full capacity. We tried to get them into hospital, but in the end they refused so we treated at home with antibiotics. Within four days they had recovered and got back to a baseline.
Although it was challenging, this scenario just shows how we do everything we can for these patients, regardless of the circumstances. If we hadn’t, the patient may well have passed away. So, to just see that genuine difference we can make. That’s a really good day.”
Why Join?
“There are so many development opportunities here. There are pathways in place and up and lots of opportunities to change if you want to.
In other roles I’ve had in the NHS, there’s been no scope to change or create new pathways. With the community and the Manchester response, there are lots of opportunities for development and also career progression.”