All our teams are currently working extremely hard as we, along with the rest of the NHS, tackle Covid-19. That’s why we wanted to give our colleagues the spotlight, as part of our In Conversation With interviews, to share what they’re doing and the impact on them.

This week we spoke to Children’s Emergency Department nurse Naomi Herbert, who has just returned to her role after a year-long secondment as a clinical skills practitioner with our Resuscitation team, which included training many colleagues during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Age: 26

Lives: In Laindon with husband Scott, 27, a project manager in construction and their daughter Willow, two. Scott and Naomi are childhood sweethearts after they met as pupils at Brittons School.​

And: Naomi featured in our BBC News piece at the peak of the pandemic, when reporter Karl Mercer came to see some of our multidisciplinary staff training. You can see Naomi teaching resus skills after donning full PPE.

What made you decide to be a nurse?

It wasn’t my plan; my mum is a nurse and I didn’t want to do exactly the same thing!

Everything at school was about sport for me so I wanted to be a physiotherapist initially. I did health and social care at college and really enjoyed it. We had some university students come and talk about what they were studying to give us an idea of career opportunities. One was studying children’s nursing and I fell in love with it.

I love working with children, I’d done work experience placements in a nursery and special needs school, and I’m from a really big family, so I’ve always been around babies and children. I also like working with children because they can really brighten your day, they’re so happy.

I did a Bachelor of Science degree in children’s nursing at London South Bank University. I really enjoyed it. I did all my placements at our Trust and when I qualified in 2015, I worked at our Emergency Department (ED) at Queen’s Hospital.

Why did you want to start your career in such a busy department?

None of my other placements matched my experience in ED. I remember a child who was choking was brought in one day and seeing how the senior nurse dealt with it made me want to be like her and change a child’s life in the way she did.

I’d done my previous ED placements at King George Hospital, so starting at Queen’s was quite scary as it was a huge team and I didn’t know anyone.

ED can be very intense, I think it can make or break you, but I love a challenge. I’ve also always found my senior sisters and fellow nurses to be really supportive.

Within a few months I knew I’d made the best decision.

I’ve done a couple of rotations back at King George ED which were really nice. As I trained there I find there’s such a family feel.

I found my role so different when I returned as a junior sister after maternity leave. I was in a different mindset after becoming a mum. I now put myself in the parents’ position, and I’m a bit of a worrier anyway!

What are the most challenging aspects of children’s nursing?

My first child death was very hard, especially as it was only four months after qualifying. It was a 12-year-old girl who had a headache then lost all ability to communicate. We realised she was in the late stage of diabetic ketoacidosis, meaning her blood sugar was very high and acidic substances called ketones had built up to dangerous levels. She wasn’t a diagnosed diabetic.

She deteriorated and died that night. I found it really hard and wondered if I could have done more. I had really good support afterwards and we had a debrief too, which helped.

I’d loved my journey so far and although this was my first experience of losing a patient, unfortunately, the nature of ED means I would see more of this. You just do the best you can for each patient at the time.

Tell us about your secondment as a clinical skills practitioner with our Resuscitation team – and how the Covid-19 pandemic affected that

When it came up I thought it would be a good opportunity to development my confidence and teaching skills. I’d already done a European Paediatric Advanced Life Support (EPALS) course where they said I had instructor potential, so I wanted to pursue this.

Teaching has really developed into something I love and I’m now one of a small number of nursing colleagues in our Trust who can teach the EPALS course.

During my secondment, as part of a job share, I was asked to develop our paediatric resus training, looking at how we could adapt our adult procedures and upskill our multidisciplinary team. Resus is my passion, as you want to make sure we do everything possible for our patients in an emergency.

When the pandemic hit I helped upskill staff with adult life support skills. I also helped ensure our resus trollies had the necessary PPE on them.

A lot of time was spent supporting our teams with resus training, incorporating PPE. In an emergency situation, we want to be helping our patients, not spending additional time putting on PPE. So it was important we got the message out about how critical PPE is to keep us all safe.

It also allowed me to develop my own skills, such as how to streamline our processes in the event of a cardiac arrest. Previously, when there was an emergency everyone rushed in. Covid-19 forced us to rethink that.

I’m proud that I put together a paediatric resus process (proforma) which we’re now running as a pilot for the next six months. It ensures the allocation of a team leader and designating roles accordingly.

I loved getting involved and helping during the pandemic. It’s obviously been a challenge. Training became more important than ever so I kept that up, and was also able to support our ED team. It meant I met colleagues I never usually would and saw us work in a much more multidisciplinary way.

What’s the best thing about your job?

No two days are the same, especially with children. Both my roles have been so unpredictable.

I remember a few years ago looking after a really poorly little girl who had meningitis and septicaemia – she was transferred to another hospital and was on a ventilator for a long time. A few weeks after she went home, her mum sent a really lovely thank you card. I’ve since seen her back in ED with a fracture. Although it wasn’t good she was in hospital, it was great to see what a fit and healthy little girl she was after having been so poorly.

What do you like getting up to outside work?

I’m a very social person and I love seeing family and friends, so you’d think Covid-19 would have been a nightmare for me in that aspect. However, I found it a weird blessing as it gave me and Scott much more family time with Willow.

It made me realise how important being together is, going for walks and watching Willow grow.