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ABSTRACT
As part of the response to COVID-19 in the United Kingdom (UK) the NHS Nightingale Hospital London was rapidly established in March 2020. Set up in the ExCel, an international conference center, it aimed to address the anticipated shortfall of intensive care beds in London. Whilst this hospital garnered huge amounts of publicity in the UK, less widely discussed is the Nightingale Education Center. The education center was instrumental in ensuring that there were staff across all professions ready to work there and had interprofessional education at its core. In a period of under two months it inducted and upskilled over 2,500 people from multiple healthcare and non-healthcare professions. That is more than most hospitals would induct in a whole year. To complete interprofessional training on this scale the education center decamped from the ExCel to The O2, a 20,000 capacity arena, and remained there for six weeks beating the iconic artist Prince for the title of longest running residency. This report offers a reflection on the authors’ time spent working in the Education Center as members of the ‘Core Operations’ team. The content of the article is based upon the authors’ reflections, first-hand experiences and field observations. It offers a reflection upon the massive undertaking of setting up an education center in an entertainment venue, as well as the successes and challenges of working interprofessionally in this unique space and under pandemic conditions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors
Ethics approval
No data is used and therefore ethical approval is not applicable
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study
Notes
1. McDonald, Joe (3rd February 2020) “Built in 10 days, China’s virus hospital takes 1st patients”. AP news.
2. Jeffery, Adam (3rd April 2020) “Photos of field hospitals set up around the world to treat coronavirus patients”. CNBC News.
3. Psychological PPE was developed and delivered by the Nightingale wellness team led by Chloe Kitto and Dr Krishna Bakhai. A formal evaluation of this intervention is currently being written. The psychological PPE content has been adapted for wider audiences; see www.psychppe.org for details.
4. Formal exploration of these themes is in progress at time of writing
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Verity Bushell
Dr Verity Bushell is a registrar in Geriatric Medicine in South East London and has undertaken a one year full time Education Fellowship at Kings College Hospital, London. She was part of the Core Operations team at the NHS Nightingale London education centre and is now part of the education team for the London Transformation and Learning Collaborative.
Libby Thomas
Dr Libby Thomas is a consultant in Emergency Medicine at Kings College Hospital, London and a passionate educator. She has a PhD in medical education and is a senior clinical lecturer at Queen Mary University London and honorary lecturer at Kings College London on the MA Clinical Education program. She was heavily involved in the design and delivery of training at NHS Nightingale London and is now Education Lead for the London Transformation and Learning Collaborative.
Julie Combes
Julie Combes is the head of Clinical Education Transformation at Health Education England and was the lead of the Education and Training work stream at the Nightingale Project London.