‘When I qualify I will leave Ireland... I just can’t afford to stay’

A FIRST-YEAR student nurse said she has already made up her mind to leave Ireland once she qualifies.

Mila Ridulovic Staines, 19, from Dundrum in South Dublin, revealed she struggles to cope as a general nurse on placement at Tallaght Hospital.

She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “As a trainee nurse it’s my job to answer the patients’ bells on the wards.

“But there’s too many bells ringing and not enough nurses and you can’t get to them all.

“It’s very stressful, and it’s very upsetting not being able to attend to patients in distress.

“We’re completely understaffed and just thrown in at the deep end.”

Mila, who was born here to a Croatian mother and an Irish father, said she does not want to leave her family but feels she has no choice.

She added: “I am a student nurse in Ireland. When I qualify, I will not be a nurse in Ireland. Not because I don’t want to but because I can’t afford to.

“The lack of pay and lack of good working conditions don’t make me or many of my classmates want to be a nurse in Ireland.

“All of the young, highly-qualified nurses will leave to work abroad and Ireland will be left with the bare minimum amount of nurses.

“I wonder how that will further impact the quality of healthcare in Ireland?”

Mila, who works another job 23 hours a week to make ends meet, plans to move to England before emigrating to Canada.

She said: “After my first placement, I was shocked at how much work a nurse actually does. “Shocked at how much emotional and physical effort and stress nurses go through on their 13hour shifts.

“I was impacted by that too.

“I was on a 35-bed ward with only three registered nurses. I was on my feet every hour of every day. I would come home exhausted and lost in a zombie-like trance.

“My feet would be so sore and the thought of walking any longer would be agonising. The working conditions did not make me want to be a nurse in Ireland any more.

“I will continue with nursing as I love caring for people when they need care the most but when I get my degree I will leave.

“I will leave to better pay and better working conditions, just like most of my year and every other year too.

“Please prevent this from happening. Prevent us from leaving. Make us want to stay.”

It’s my job to answer when patients ring bells..there’s too many and not enough nurses MILA RIDULOVIC STAINES ON NURSES’ CONDITIONS