When Nurse Practitioner Deb Gillon could no longer visit her patients in their homes due to Covid-19, her skills were quickly redirected to support the pandemic nurse triage call centre.

Deb, a Nurse Practitioner for Community Older Persons within Canterbury Clinical Network, normally sees patients who have long-term issues, such as memory issues or chronic conditions rather than acute needs.

“When alert level three and four started it was no longer an option for me to visit my patients who are vulnerable, so the Older Person’s Health Service looked after anyone who needed to be seen urgently,” says Deb.

Deb started in the call centre taking referrals from general practitioners and talking to patients about their symptoms. 

“The biggest challenge for me was mastering new technology, such as multiple screens and a new telephone system, so I didn’t lose calls and got those needing to be tested to their closest Community Based Assessment Centre as quickly as possible.”

“Another challenge was keeping up with the rapid changes at times, particularly the criteria for being tested, but this was the nature of the situation and there was always clinical support available and a good system of updating the team with a huddle at the start of each shift, while we kept our physical distance.”

“Most people were very willing to do what was needed to keep themselves and other people safe, which was very comforting. We spoke to them about their symptoms and how unwell they were and whether there was something else going on, that they needed referral back to their general practice or hospital for.”

People with positive test results were called by Community and Public Health, who then did contact tracing and gave advice on the care needed and self-isolation. Those with negative results were sent text messages with further information on self isolation from nurse triage.  

Sometimes when Deb spoke to families, she was put on speaker phone by the family, so they could all hear her advice, which took the heavy responsibility away from the person who initially made the call. 

“It was a very stressful time for some families and I spent a lot of time reassuring and trying to relieve people’s anxiety. They needed to be reminded that they could still seek health care, take their medication and to do what they normally do when they are unwell.” 

“I also gave them information about how to self-isolate and to act as if they had Covid-19 until they received their test results, which some found a difficult concept to understand.”
Shifts were six hours and the team was careful to keep their distance from one another. 

“It was pretty tiring talking to people for this long and when I got home I went through quite a process of removing clothing and washing thoroughly.”

A highlight for Deb was feeling like she was making a contribution and talking to people and hearing how they were managing, especially older and more vulnerable people. 

One older man she spoke to was having his meals and groceries delivered. He got zoom going and used it to attend online church services and connect with family and friends. He said he had never been so social.

Most older people she spoke to had a cell phone they could use to phone or text, and most had good support from neighbours, friends, family and organisations, such as Age Concern, Society of St Vincent de Paul, Civil Defence and the Student Army shopping service, however there were some that struggled with online banking and some were reluctant to accept help. 

“Another positive spinoff was getting to know people that I don’t normally cross paths with in the office. We shared a lot of laughter and it was also nice to get to know my team mate’s families via zoom with the many video-bombing children and sometimes partners.”
 
Deb also has many groups to support and keep informed. She is helping general practice stay up to speed on help available from community organisations, such as Dementia Canterbury, assisting them to identify and connect with their vulnerable patients, who may need support and completing shared care plans with patients. As well as this, she has contributed to guidelines for older people regarding Covid-19 with the Older Person’s Health Service and lecturing online and marking papers in her other role with the Centre for Postgraduate Nursing Studies for Otago University.