�ʼһ���

I am struggling to remember my life before coronavirus. I miss my previous “normal” and long for the time we met face-to-face, we planned meetings and educational events, we saw our patients on the ward without PPE and we could undertake a developmental assessment on a baby using facial expressions and smiles. I am mourning the loss of all of that.

Now the new “normal” is lockdown, remote working, closed schools and universities and a daily death toll that is breathtaking and frightening. This crisis doesn’t seem to be following the rhythm of other crises that I have known in my life. There is no end in sight and the opportunities to plan “nice things” after the crisis are not there – because we simply don’t know when it will be over or what the world will look like.

Investing in our own wellbeing and developing self-compassion needs to be a priority

As is so often the case in very difficult times, we are seeing both the best and the worst in humanity. There is plenty of blame and anger around. There are also extraordinary acts of kindness and compassion. I’ve had really snappy exchanges with colleagues. I have also had the kindest emails, unexpected and genuine thanks and practical kindness that has made me see the very best in my family and in my friends and colleagues.

None of us has infinite energy. There is a long way to go in this pandemic and our ability to remain compassionate, effective and productive - both at work and at home - will rely on our ability to adjust to this new “normal” and look after ourselves. Investing in our own wellbeing and developing self-compassion needs to be a priority. Each of us will do this in different ways. For some it will be about getting regular exercise and enough sleep. For others it will be about finding time in the day to reflect and examine one’s thoughts and feelings. The method we choose to invest in our wellbeing is not important – but doing it is vital.

We have developed a large bank of resources on the Your wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic part of this website.  The content will be refreshed regularly, so please take a look as there is certain to be something that you’ll find interesting and hopefully helpful. Both our regular RCPCH eBulletin and our members magazine, Milestones will carry articles on wellbeing and ideas to share with colleagues to enhance teamworking and psychological health during this crisis.

We know that sometimes the greatest impact of a crisis is not during, but afterwards. At RCPCH we are committed to supporting all of us both now and in the future. So, we are carefully designing our resources to continue to try and meet people's needs. Please remember that no one needs to struggle through this alone. If you would like to talk to someone, we have links to the – or if you’d like a conversation with one of our RCPCH Careers Advisors about the impact of COVID-19 on you and your working life, please contact us for a chat. We’ll get through this together.