Specialist Occupational Therapist, Judi Armstrong
Working at Derriford Vaccination Hub during the global pandemic has been an honour.
The team at Derriford hub have been amazing to work with. We have supported each other to enable skilled client focused treatment in a non-invasive environment. Everyone has been incredibly committed to the service provided.
Every day that I have worked at the Derriford Vaccination Hub, I have observed empathy, respect and sensitivity to those that have come to us for their vaccines.
There have been many joyous times that I have been a part of and I shall miss my wonderful colleagues greatly as we leave Derriford to move on to a new venue.
It has been a privilege to serve my community and to be a part of a wonderful, cohesive, professional team.
Vaccinator, Janet Benjafield
I trained as a registered general nurse at Plymouth School of Nursing at Derriford in 1982. After starting a family I left nursing but when the pandemic changed our world I wanted to be involved in some way, to do something positive.
After extensive training in the various vaccines that had been so far approved, I once again began working at Derriford with the Mass Vaccination programme as a Vaccinator some 32 years after I had left.
The team here has been put together from across the wider NHS community, and from many that had retired; midwives, general, paediatric, student and psychiatric nurses, health visitors, health care assistants, clerical staff, occupational therapists, physiotherapists pharmacologists, hospital doctors, GP’s, paramedics, IT specialists plus huge numbers of the general public who volunteered, and many, many more, all coming together as one big team working together with a single goal: to get as many people double vaccinated in as short a time, in the safest, simplest way as possible.
It has been an absolute privilege to work alongside all these amazing professionals and volunteers who hit the ground running to undertake this mammoth task. Personally it’s been wonderful to work alongside ex-colleagues and friends again, there’s been much laughter and reminiscing, working out who knows who from decades ago, catching up on news and realising that although we’re all older we fundamentally haven’t changed in wanting to help others.
The public have been absolutely fantastic; I don’t think I’ll ever be thanked as much ever again as I have in any of my shifts here. Everyone has been so grateful for what we have been doing showing basic human nature at its best with adverse circumstances bringing out the best in people. It’s been an absolute privilege.
Dan Fowell, Nurse Associate Educator
It has been an honour to be able serve and protect the general population in the delivery of the vaccination programme.
Everyone who works at the vaccine centre, be it registered nurses, health care assistants, other health care professionals admin and volunteers have created a bond like no other. We are all there for the same cause and wanting to make a difference to people lives through providing this service.
Not one of us could deliver such a valuable service without the support of one another.
I feel privileged to be in a position to offer my services to help protect the general public and colleagues that I have worked with. This will remain one of the greatest experiences of my career for the rest of my life.