Introduction - Staff Recovery Resources

Emotional and psychological support spaces for NHS staff

These resources have been created to support healthcare staff recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The resources have been curated by the London Transformation and Learning Collaborative. Not all people approach wellbeing by the same means. These resources acknowledge those differences and cover a variety of approaches, such as Wellbeing Conversations, Creative Story Telling workshops and a mini-series of filmed conversations with critical care workers starting with a discussion around Moral Injury. All the resources help health and care staff explore how they feel and how they might respond to those around them.

Materials to support “Negotiating Brave Conversations” have now been added to this page as well so that these sessions can be facilitated within NHS Trusts/Integrated Care Systems.

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Creating Spaces for Wellbeing

How do we cope with all that life throws at us? Especially since the pandemic began in 2020? Life, both at work and at home, has changed beyond recognition and many of us, as well as the systems we work in, are finding it challenging to adapt.

Spaces for Wellbeing are resources for staff that can be facilitated for colleagues by anyone who feels able, in order to support themselves and others. We offer a range of spaces as we recognise people may need differing approaches depending on their circumstances, preferences and personal needs.

Please explore the resources below. For each, you will find a description and a short film introduction about the space. There is further reading and guides for facilitators where appropriate.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on at LTLC@hee.nhs.uk.

Negotiating Brave Conversations

“Negotiating Brave Conversations” sessions were developed in response to feedback the LTLC received from nursing leaders in the spring/summer of 2021. It was suggested that conversations around further redeployment would be more challenging than had previously been the case given that staff knew what to expect from changes to their working week and were burned out, fearful and anxious of having to work in unfamiliar areas again. A series of sessions took place in June and July 2021. in anticipation of another surge in the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the materials for delivering these sessions independently are offered here.

The Brave Conversations provision was centred around 2 sessions:

• A one-hour Spaces for Listening session where the 3 questions were tailored to surge working;
• A two-hour workshop during which participants were invited to practise an approach to conducting conversations that aimed to level up the contributions of both manager and staff member, to prepare each for potential redeployment and to encourage staff agency in preparing for such a move.

Spaces for Listening followed the same model outlined elsewhere in these materials with amended questions which were:

• What do you find challenging about holding conversations with colleagues (surge working or otherwise?)
• In an ideal world how would these conversations work?
• What might you take forward in your conversations as a result of this session?

The brave conversations workshop which followed focused on asking open, coaching style questions using two models: SOFT and IRIS.

Facilitator Guides can be found at the bottom of this page.

Further reading:

• Conversations Inviting Change
• Re defining a professional approach
• 100 Most Powerful Life Coaching Questions

Moral Injury

Starting with an exploration of moral injury this series of films includes conversation with Dr Esther Murray exploring some of the impacts of the pandemic on staff. The films look at issues from different aspects including leaders, team members and healthcare psychologists. These were filmed in November 2020 by the LTLC team and edited specifically to address the needs in our workforce, both in critical care and beyond.

The 6 films cover 1) Understanding Moral Injury, 2) how to handle it when you recognise moral injury in someone and 3) how to try and re-claim space for connection with each other.

They also discuss 4) Recognising how hard people find it during a pandemic to switch off from work and so managing our addiction to WhatsApp and other social media outlets.

The team discuss 5) Preparing for deployment from the perspective of the new and old team members and finally 6) how to manage requests to work more shifts, considering the challenges facing the person being asked and those that have to make these requests.

Each film is accompanied by reflective questions and, where appropriate, links to further reading.

Bitesize.healthcare - Instagram

The bitesize.healthcare Instagram page offers a collection of honest, candid insights from health care professionals. These individuals share how they look after themselves and or their team and how they keep patients safe with their non-technical skills. Each clip is no longer than 90 seconds.

Other resources

• NHS People: Useful guides on looking after ourselves and each other
• Good Thinking: Digital and mental wellbeing for London
• Minded: elearning to support healthy minds
• Resilience Hub: Staff resilience hub
• Re-humanising Revolution: Stories from healthcare and education, with a focus on humanity
• Brené Brown on vulnerability
• Caroline McHugh on the art of being yourself
• Madeleine Bunting on humanity
• Article about loss and grief
• Blog on how healthcare professionals cope with extreme circumstances