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A healthcare worker said she had to juggle her job helping to feed Covid-19 hospital patients with family responsibilities to her three young children.

However, Tishea Smith, 42, said she made sure she spent time with her children, a nine-year-old girl, a three-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter, every day after her eight-hour shift at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

She admitted that it was difficult to find the energy because her job as a ward assistant required her to be at the hospital at 7am — and often at weekends.

Ms Smith said: “I have to turn around and do everything all over, Monday through Friday, and then if they’re short on the weekends, they may call me, and it’s Tishea to the rescue, so I come back in.

“It’s a busy time, but it’s all very rewarding.”

Ms Smith, from Warwick, said that she delivered food to the surgical ward and the isolation rooms for patients with Covid-19.

She said she normally gave food straight to the patients, but now gives meals to nurses working in isolation rooms for delivery.

Ms Smith explained that, because air could not leave the isolation rooms because of a pressure system, she had little to fear.

She admitted: “When we first started getting cases in the hospital I was kind of scared to deliver meals in that area, but because of the way that it’s set up, I don’t have contact with the actual patients, so it’s just like a regular job.”

Ms Smith said that her favourite part of the job was contact with the patients.

She added: “Sometimes, if I’m having a bad day, and I go into a patient’s room they will brighten my day.

“Sometimes it’s the opposite — you have some patients that don’t have a lot of family or visitors, or they might be having a bad day and they need to vent and when I walk in I’m the person they need.”

Ms Smith said: “I get personable with my patients, so I make them feel as if I’m family.

“I greet them, I give them a smile and I let them know that I’m actually glad to be serving them.

“It feels rewarding because a lot of them tell me ‘I appreciate this’ or ‘you’re so kind’.”

Ms Smith said that the recognition of her role was what kept her motivated.

She explained: “Sometimes there are days when I don’t feel up to it, but as soon as I get on the ward I know this is what I’m good at and this is where I shine.

“My patients know that and they express to me how I’m doing a good job, or they tell me they appreciate me and that makes me feel awesome, because it’s not every day that you get recognised for doing a good job.”

Ms Smith said that many of her colleagues in other roles in the hospital felt the same — and also deserved a pat on the back.

She added: “You have people that clean around the hospital that are spending just as much time with the patients doing their rooms and I think it’s important to recognise them because I don’t think people get to hear about them as much as they might hear about the doctor or the nurse.”