Reason #3: You're stronger than you think (with Hannah Whittall)

Welcome to 13 Reasons to try a space where we deep dive in stories of resilience, vulnerability, and the courage it takes to rise when life really knocks you down. I'm Louise Parker, a recovering girl boss, turn radio presenter, and mental health advocate. This podcast is here to help you discover your reason to try. So today I am joined by an absolutely extraordinary guest. I'm so excited. So Hannah Whittle is a former A&E nurse, who spent over a decade on the front lines of emergency care, including some of the most challenging moments of the pandemic. So her story is one of courage, compassion, and finding light in the darkness of times. So whether you're listening to this right now on your commute during a walk or taking some time to just have a little bit of quiet time, this conversation will remind you that even in life's toughest moments, there's always a way forward. Let's dive in. So Hannah, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're here. Hello, thank you for having me. Oh, I'm so, so, so excited. It's incredibly exciting to have you on the podcast. So I want to start by talking about your time as an A&E nurse. So can you share a little bit about what drew you to being a nurse and what your experience was like being on those A&E front lines? I've been a nurse now for almost a decade, starting in emergency, emergency care. So I've worked in the A&E now for the majority of my time. What kind of spared me on to to go into nursing originally was I got I tell you what I kind of just fell into it and that came off of the back of I was super into my judo, as it from a young age, when I used to fight for Great Britain, kind of long story short, I fractured my clavicle and kind of had to think for new career or my feet and I've always been like the caring type and I just knew that nursing was something that I wanted to do. So kind of fell into that and yeah, that's what I've been doing for the last 10 years. Amazing. So you had something medical wrong with you, basically fracturing your clavicle, did I say that right? Doing judo, I feel great Britain, I mean, not just any old club, great Britain. So you have something medical wrong with you and so it's like that's quite a slight link to the medical world, isn't it? And you know, stop that part of what was you thought was going to be your career and then you ended up helping other people who nursing with their health problems. So I think that's, first of all, super inspiring to just be like, okay, what we're going to do. So you obviously worked through some incredibly difficult times. I think everyone that has been in the hospital or has been around nurses, doctors, et cetera, is bloody hard. We all know that it's bloody hard, especially during the bit of a swear word now pandemic. So what was that pandemic period like for you as a nurse on the front lines? I mean, it's been, it's been a nightmare for us all, we've been, it's been, it's just been hard. Especially when you go into a career that you, yeah, you think you'll be greater and you can make a difference for the change and then there's just not the resources to make that that happen. But one thing that I would like to highlight is the just how, just how underfunded we are, which does lead to the understaff in the under resources. And that's just, do you know what, that's, that came before the pandemic. So since the pandemic has been like a whole, whole bunch of extra pressures. It's really, really hard. I don't know how to express it anymore. We struggle every day on the front line on in A&E, we struggle. And yeah, since the pandemic, it's been a whole lot worse. Outpatient appointments that were put on hold or cancelled, all of these things have like led to more of an issue. So I think there's something that we've all seen is people in the corridors. It is a very sad state of affairs. I know my local hospital is West Suffolk Hospital and they even have to set up, you know, demountables outside now because they just don't have the space, lots and lots of old hospitals and a lot of patients don't get discharged because they're waiting for their med or they're reliant on social care. Just wondered from an insider's point of view how you feel about all of that. You don't go into the profession thinking that you're going to give the gold standard care that we're meant to give and we're trained to give to just giving the bed minimum. And it depletes us as nurses. It's noticeable, even more so now during the pandemic, winter pressures, it was always a case. We're not doing the best that we could do. We're still completely depleted in resources and staff and space and capacity. But yeah, so winter pressures, it's always been a case where we would get the corridor care. That was normal. But since the pandemic, it's now every day and I actually just want to always make a plea. I mean, we've got a new government now for the first time in 15 years and they have pledged to make changes. And I just want to re highlight how just how crippling it has been for us nurses and healthcare professionals. And I don't want the promises that have been made to be overlooked or brushed aside any longer, not just because of the impact it has on patients, but the impact it does have on staff. Yeah, I think that's really key. And I think if you think if it was your grandparent or your parent in hospital, you wouldn't want them in a corridor, would you? And they wouldn't want to be in a corridor either. And I think a bit like you, because we know each other. If you don't want to be a nurse anymore, you can still use that gold standard of care for other things as well. Use your skills that you have. Those skills being a nurse, being empathetic, being able to administer medications and things like that. You could use that with so many things. And that is the whole point of this podcast is if you want to have a change, obviously, if you want to be a nurse for the rest of your life, like absolutely go for it, maybe you want to change your tool. As I've said in the end of the first episode, you can utilize any of your skills. You can bundle them up, work out what works where and you can just flourish in another career or another freelance role or a business or even something voluntary. You can literally utilize it for anything. I know that before you were talking about when you're exploring different career options and I was exploring different career options at the time as well. And I just think it's very exciting as a skill set for a nurse as well and not to be demoralised by either the NHS in general, the government in general or that particular hospital or that you're working in is about what sets your soul and what makes what makes you happy. So like amidst all of that, what can frankly be called chaos, were there any moments within that you know chats with your colleagues, your friends, patients, was there any stories of hope that you can remember from those moments during the pandemic. I mean you worked in London of all places as well. I mean you're basically a superhero, an a and e nurse in London during the pandemic. I don't think it actually gets worse than that to be honest. So first of all actually I would just say like the support from your own staff and colleagues. So I had one person like colleague that was very close to me that helped me along the way which was like compelling in a really really difficult time because I mean myself and like many others like lived away from home during the pandemic. So any nurses and doctors out there that was living away from their families is completely yeah it was just devastating. It was hard. It was just hard for all of us having another. Another person to talk to during those times. I mean nurses are empathetic people so they're always going to be and that's kind of the reason why they do it. They don't get getting burnt out because they like the demand of the job and being the backbone of the care given in the hospital and just having to well yeah they just get to demoralise because they're constantly working hard. They can't do what they want to do and yeah so we have those issues but we also have the colleagues luckily with nurses so we have that support from each other but what we want is to outreach that support and to hope you get some support from the government which is our play really. Yeah I think that's really important as well it's like the more people that are talking about what's going on the better it doesn't matter if there's a million voices out there talking about it. That is the key is just more voices talking about the actual realities about what happens in hospitals behind the scenes because great camaraderie between nurses that's fabulous. But if you're not getting that support and I know that you're very passionate about the government but I think it's what is important to highlight is this conversation in itself that we're having now whether that's to five people are all five million people it's five people that will understand more about what nurses and health care professionals go through. I know you want a personal level and I know even just this conversation between us now is quite hard now you've stepped away from learning so first of all thank you for having this conversation because it is going to help a lot of people. I think what helps people the most is whether you are in health care or not everyone suffers with burnout. So you just touched on it briefly there is there anything about burnout how did you experience burnout how did you recognize it was burnout because I think a lot of people don't recognize it's burnout and how did you big like how did you start to recover from that or are you still recovering. Yeah there was a lot of challenges I've taken a step back now and that's why I kind of want to go into more of a campaigning activist role and try and help the NHS being on the front line and knowing where all of the fallbacks are and being able to make recommendations now. But just also having the passion for it because it did completely it yeah it depleted me as long along with like so many nurses and health care professionals however like during the during the pandemic we did have health policies and we did have we did have policy drivers playing a crucial role in like in advocating for protective measures for example during the pandemic so rolling out the vaccination program. Implementing social distancing go with guidelines and then of course being able to obtain PPE between departments and to safely care for people with COVID. So yeah so that was even though at the time it was like a lot of lingo that was still like a bed of like it still showed us some like some kind of support that there is yeah there is policy drivers out that can. Like make these decisions and pull through so that was really really like comforting during a really challenging time do you mind me asking what is a policy driver I'm a bit dumb to that yeah so health policies so. Any you could be a nurse as well to be a hot policy driver just anyone that's an advocate and has a passion for driving a policy but it's it's the kind of role that they've gone into within the nursing doesn't even have to be a nurse but if you've yeah if you've got what it takes then I could see you as a policy driver I think you're very passionate individual and someone that has seen the highs the lows and everything in between and I think it needs that type of person so if there's anyone listening. But once anyone in campaigning or being a policy driver or an advocate for nurses in the NHS or even in the private sector I think because even in the private sector I'm sure they've had it just as bad they just have more money. So you know NHS is incredibly underfunded now we've got Mr Keir Starmer who's in power now we this is not a politics podcast by the way at all but we have to touch on that because we have a new government for the first time in 15 years but I think so many people listening whether they're in healthcare or not could really relate to that feeling of burnout particularly at the end of a stressful period. Whether that is the pandemic everyone suffered in the pandemic whatever career you're in or even after a period of trauma or something unfortunate happening to you using the job etc. So if you were faced with a friend or someone on the street who was at their absolute breaking point you know they were completely burnt out something's happened to them and they're like I've had enough. Is there any advice that you would give to that person on the street. So number one that you're you are stronger than you think and number two just speak out because this so many things so many people and in times of your life you do think right I can deal with this I can deal with this or maybe it's just me thinking this but it's not. Just speak out and there's always going to be someone that can help or at least support you and there's safety and numbers so if there's more more people speaking about that we're going to make changes and yeah but just not not saying quiet if you're suffering speak out that is the perfect advice I think because when you look at Hannah or I on the surface if you ever meet us in person. You think God these girls are so confident they must have you know best careers ever but Hannah and I have bonded on such a level because of mental health because of speaking about what we're going through and how we feel and our careers but also we're by very driven individuals and we bond on that level as well even if you see someone on the surface who think is doing well. Just ask them if they're right because they might not be and if they reach out to you that is when they're at their lowest lowest because people don't reach out unless they are desperate for help. So if that is you who is on the cusp of shall I talk to this person about how I feel and make sure you're talking to that person this who is safe or a professional but just talking really really helps. So if you've made it this far you're probably enjoying with 13 reasons to try pork cut. If you want us to continue to make even more amazing content and bring some more incredible guests to you you can buy me a coffee. Buy me a coffee is a simple free donation based tool head to buy me a coffee dot com forward slash 13 reasons to try. So Hannah before we finish that's lighting it up slightly let's think of some like like humorous stories you felt about being an earth so let's do a few quick fire questions are you ready. I think so. So what is one thing that people get totally wrong about being an earth so you're you're very sexy and have it all made up put together can get it down when you go home. But that's quite far from the truth because you're quite often exhausted and just want your bed. I love that carry on films have a lot to answer for I think even though that was that was a long time ago I think carry on films 80s yeah yeah I think they you know even I'll be city casualty all of these things they've got the makeup teams this is not real so real so how do you practice self care now it can be something as cliche as yoga or something as basic as wine. How do you practice self care. Okay so I of course I do enjoy the glass of wine we occasionally on the weekends I love tennis at the moment that's what I'm doing at the moment yeah my tennis is actually what keeps me peaceful at the moment and then generally just go for walk speaking to my family chilling out I've got a few things that keep me relaxed but yeah I'd say for sure yeah definitely tennis like sport if you're a sporty person you need to get some aggression out that it's definitely sport to take up tennis I might have to give that a try I do like watching a tennis but actually playing tennis not so much. So if you go back to I don't know 10 to 13 year old Hannah I don't know if you were doing judo at the time but imagine that version of you the one with the coach if you can give that Hannah a piece of advice what would it be just yeah just be yourself girl and be happy in what you're doing and what you want to do and just keep going always look up always yeah don't don't ignore the downfalls or don't pretend everything's all very easy but just keep keep going recognize when you need a break and that is okay to have a break and it's completely okay to have a break but yeah but just brush yourself off and you'll get there I think being yourself is key yeah I think a lot of pressures when we're younger particularly at school they kind of make you feel like you can't be yourself I mean my journey from interiors to radio presenting now the main piece of advice that I've got from people big people in the industry is just be yourself I think that's amazing and I think whether you're a nurse whether you are high flying lawyer or a podcaster being yourself is key and that is how you find your people as well how you find your tribe so Hannah I mean I do know you're ready but your story is so bloody inspiring and I know it will resonate with so many people listening whether they're in health care or a completely different career or whether they're just in between things at the moment so before we wrap up I want to ask you the key question that I ask in every episode what is your reason to try yeah so just that you're you are stronger than you think great reason because you always are you really always are so thank you so much for sharing your story with us today Hannah your resilience and your openness as well no matter how difficult that may be is really a reminder to all of us to just keep going no matter how tough life gets there's always a reason to keep going and if you're listening and this episode resonated with you share it with someone that might need a little bit of encouragement today don't forget to subscribe for more conversations like this one until next time take care of yourself lean into that strength and remember there is always a reason to try