International Nurses Day celebrated at Tullamore Hospital

The Irish Nursing profession celebrated International Nurses Day 2020 on May 12, including at the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore.

Despite the busy activity in response to Covid-19, nurses and their colleagues across hospitals and community services took time to recognise and acknowledge the work of all nurses.

Each year, the International Council for Nurse’s (ICN) leads the celebrations. The theme for International Nurses Day 2020 is ‘Nursing the World to Health’. When this theme was decided no one could possibly have foretold how the world would come to rely on and value the nursing profession as they currently do, raising the profile of the profession exponentially and deservedly. Such a health crisis has never been experienced before even through the H1N1 Flu pandemic of 2009.

Irish nurses not only stood up to the challenge but embraced it and in many ways reorganised how they delivered care. Nursing by the bedside prevailed despite the apparent barrier of PPE. Nurses overcame this with various initiatives like wearing a photo of themselves on their gowns to maintain that all-important human touch. ‘Smiling with your eyes’ became even more important to convey encouragement and reassurance to frightened patients.

The celebrations of 2020 are more poignant as on May 12, 1820, Florence Nightingale was born. Because of this the World Health Organisation declared 2020 ‘The Year of the Nurse and Midwife’.

To mark the occasion, the Nursing teams in Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore (MRHT) celebrated the day. On behalf of MRHT hospital management and the local community, Louisea Burke, Director of Nursing, and her Senior Nurse Management Team delivered bakery treat boxes containing a selection of cakes to nursing staff throughout the hospital. This token was given in appreciation of the care, compassion and commitment that nurses consciously provide to their patients. They encouraged nurses to take a well-deserved break with their colleagues and celebrate the development of nursing as a career alongside their own professional accomplishments. 

Louisea Burke, Director of Nursing at MRHT commented: “Health and wellbeing amongst nursing staff is utmost at all times but is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses in MRHT are at the frontline in caring for all our patients throughout the year, Hospital Management and the Senior Nurse Management Team wanted to express their appreciation to them for the care, compassion and commitment that they deliver on a daily basis to patients.

To also mark this celebratory occasion, a distinctive word cloud was created which was displayed in the hospital and on all treat boxes. The word cloud contains descriptors including kind, compassion, caring, professional, words that local children, MRHT patients and colleagues have used to describe nurses in our hospital. These descriptors show the value that people place on our nursing staff and MRHT nurses must be proud of their value and strong connection with the local community.

This year, 2020, marks the Year of the Nurse and Midwife and celebrates the advancements in the nursing profession. In MRHT, nurses are continuously developing their practice in order to keep up to date with international and national evidence-based practice. Education, training and professional development amongst our nursing staff is a key priority to nursing management.”

Ms Eileen Whelan, Chief Director of Nursing & Midwifery & Quality at the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group commented: “I would like to thank every nurse and every student nurse for their commitment to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. You have demonstrated tremendous courage and thank you to all the staff that have planned in advance of this pandemic.

"Many of you have reorganised services, you have moved services off-site including all of your staff team. You have been involved in upskilling and have redeployed to areas of greater need. You have been involved in implementing new triage systems to separate patients, to support greater patient safety. In addition, you have innovated your practice and directed all these changes in the interest of patients’ safety.”

“I would like to thank all nurses of all grades and specialities and advance practice but in particular I would like to thank the nurses who responded to the plea for help from the residential care facilities making a tremendous impact to a very vulnerable group of patients. Thank you for your courage.

"In addition while this is a time where social isolation is really important as nurses we never work in isolation. We are always part of a bigger nursing team and a wider healthcare family. Not everyone will be able to sustain the challenge of working through the pandemic at the same pace; look out for colleagues who may need help and I encourage anyone who is finding the environment too challenging to seek help when needed. It is both the courage and the teamwork that is making a difference in this COVID-19 pandemic - ‘misneach agus meitheal’. Thank you for your courage and teamwork.”