Choose A Chair, Any Chair

Back to the Vaccine Clinic today and I had a change of job! I was to ferry patients from the Treatment rooms to the waiting room for departure or 15 minute wait. The patients were all given the Astra Zeneca (Oxford) vaccine which wouldn't normally require a 15 minute wait. However, anyone driving or cycling was nevertheless asked to sit down to make sure they were quite all right before leaving the surgery. Paul, my fellow Goodgym volunteer was back at the Church, so we didn't see much of each other at all. I nipped across to get a photo of him and Gail whilst they were ferrying patients across to the surgery. You can just about see them. I was able to observe how much work the nurses had to put in to get the patients through and out - new patient, new gloves, quick health check, apply the vaccine, run through potential side-effects, say goodbye, clean chair, repeat. They get through a lot of equipment, and I loved that they seemed to have colour coordinated their gloves with their scrubs, blue or purple. There was alot of laughter all afternoon which was lovely to hear and all the patients clearly very happy to get the vaccine protection - each of the patients got an 'I've had my covid vaccination' sticker. We saw a lot of NHS staff in today from Southern Health Hampshire, so lots of different people being invited to attend the clinic. When I took the patients to the waiting room, they were able to pick any chair to sit and wait their 15 minutes, the nurses had marked the time of when the vaccine was given, and they just needed to watch the clock. I was working alongside Anabel who was a HIVE volunteer, Jane and Emma who are affiliated to the surgery group. The time as usual went really quickly and it was soon time to tidy and clean the areas ready for tomorrow's clinic and go on home. It had been raining quite heavily so my cycle home was a very wet but refreshing ride home. Job satisfaction definitely high.