The current situation with COVID-19 has put us all in unusual situations and has been extremely challenging. My employment for the last 3 years, since my NMC experience, came to an abrupt end when the organisation, like many others, had to make the economic decision to stop all bank work (permanent agency work, in effect) as they redeployed staff and watched the impact of fewer patient referrals bed in.
The 3 years at LOC have been a godsend, when I went back to work I was a shadow of my former self. I doubted my every move, confidence at an all-time low and seemed to have lost all the built-up knowledge and expert ability that I had developed over the previous 25 years of working life. The team there were patient, kind and supportive. They allowed me to gain my confidence slowly, never putting expectations on how quickly I gained my competencies and when I had a wobble was there to tell me I was doing OK.
My blog “Lasting effects” explains this further.