Returnee: ‘This is the mother I want my son to see’
LISA O’Connor is one of the former nurses hoping to return to work with the HSE during the coronavirus outbreak.
She is working in nurse education at the moment but kept her registration after leaving frontline nursing a few years ago.
She said: ‘The huge motivating factor for me is to help with the fight against the coronavirus. It’s the idea of all healthcare professionals, frontline staff, members of the community coming together to help in any way they can.’
Ms O’Connor, who has worked in Waterford hospital, said: ‘It’s impossible as a nurse to watch what is unfolding in the Irish healthcare system and not sign up and play my part. I’m happy to sign up and looking forward to the call to play my part.’
She has applied for a role and is waiting to hear back.
In Ferns, Co. Wexford, cardiology specialist nurse Martha Killeen is also applying to get back to work. She returned from an 18-year career in London six months ago. Martha said she tried to get full-time work here but was told only agency hours were available due to the recruitment freeze. That has now been lifted by the HSE.
She said: ‘I worked in critical care, they are putting people on ventilators for this and that’s my area. I just want to be in there with other nurses.’
A single parent, she is trying to sort out childcare with the help of friends.
She said: ‘I won’t be nervous. This is the life of a nurse. I would always have been coming home to a child from the hospital; this is the mother I want my son to see.’