On the Frontline – NHS AHP’s
Just as the Covid-19 pandemic was coming towards its main peak in the UK, and not long before I was re-deployed into ICU to work Nursing shifts, I received a message from a friend and fellow Physiotherapist (who I used to work with at the Royal Free), with a proposition: to join her in setting up a social media page to help boost morale. We had both by this point been pulled in from our normal roles to provide respiratory physio treatment to patients in ICU, and had been seeing lots of Therapists in similar positions to ourselves trying to share information and ideas as well as acknowledge the good and hard work they were doing, but without a platform by which to do so. We also noticed that most of the media and social media attention celebrating the work of Healthcare Professionals in response to the pandemic was directed at Doctors and Nurses (which was and is very well deserved), but with little coverage or understanding of the vital roles played by other workers in the NHS.
The idea behind our Facebook page: ‘On the Frontline – NHS AHPs’ was to share stories and successes with the aim to spread some positivity during a very unknown and testing time, and also to help raise awareness and promote the roles of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) within the NHS, including their extremely vital roles during the pandemic. There are 14 AHP professions, including Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy and Radiography. We initially thought we might get a few hundred followers, and were absolutely amazed when our first post got over 3,000 likes, and over 800,000 views! The response has been incredible: we have now reached almost 14,000 followers, and continue to get some really lovely feedback about how useful our page has been.
Off the back of the page, we have also started a podcast: called ‘AHPs – Off The Record’, for which we are interviewing AHPs from all different backgrounds to hear about how they got into their profession, how they have been affected by the pandemic, and any top tips for aspiring AHPs. We hope that through the Facebook page and the podcast, we might help to encourage young people to consider going into AHP roles, as well as improve the general public’s understanding of what we do. If you’re interested in hearing more, please have a look at our page or listen to the podcast!
