A budding author and nurse is ‘over the moon’ to have her first article, focusing on her pandemic reflections, printed in a national publication.
Louise Rooney is Clinical Lead Specialist for the Lymphoedema Service at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. Having previously written a joint article for The British Journal of Community Nursing, her colleagues encouraged her to put together her own piece.
She penned ‘The pandemic’s impact on a Lymphoedema service: reflections of a lymphoedema Clinical Lead Nurse Specialist’ and it was published in the Oedema Supplement in the British Journal of Community Nursing.
Louise said: “As professionals we are encouraged to reflect on what we have undertaken professionally, and I wanted to write something initially on my own reflections during the pandemic.
“However, the more I jotted down, the more I wanted to share the experience.
“I had previously written a joint article for The British Journal of Community Nursing with my peers and never thought I would be capable of writing something myself. So seeing my own publication has been brilliant.
“This also inspired me to present at the ninth Lymphoedema conference in Manchester and furthermore to repeat the presentation online to Lipoedema UK. Not only that, I have also had my peers within Lymphoedema asking for support on how I have managed to change some of our protocols at other NHS trusts.”
Louise said she was ‘over the moon’ to see the article published.
She said: “It is difficult to comprehend what little old me has achieved. I cannot tell you how proud I am of myself, and my mum tells everyone she speaks to.
“Writing something to be published was not what I set out to do – I would encourage anyone to have a go, it is very rewarding.”
Louise said she had plenty to write about after her experience.
She said: “The pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but each service has had its own issues, from sickness, to being scared, redeployment, PPE and not to mention change in behaviours, personal tragedy, and the public attitudes toward NHS workers. That is not even considering the weekly shop hassle and the hunt for loo roll.
“We may not have been a COVID-19 ward, but we certainly had to deal with COVID-19 issues daily. The pandemic certainly found the best in people and the worst. I am fortunate that if I had to do it all over again, I would be proud to with my work family here at Walsall Palliative Care Centre.”