A MIDWIFE

In August 2020, I started a new job in a new trust I've always been confident, but that walk up to the hospital and into the unit was more nerve-racking than my first day after qualification I knew who everyone was at my previous trust, so it wasn't a problem when we all started having to wear masks, but the practice has made it hard for me to get to know people in my new workplace How am I going to learn who everyone is? How can I tell a consultant from a registrar, or a senior house officer from an anaesthetist?Masks also change people's perceptions of each other Our inability to see someone's facial expressions when they are talking to us can change how we interpret their words We have to speak with our eyes - and, after a long and busy shift, they can show our fatigue I mean, how many of us have told the women we're supporting that we promise we're smiling behind our masks?