The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Paula Moor, who is the district nurse at Comrie Healthcare Centre. She is one of the nurses telling her story as part of the celebrations for International Nurses Day, following a year like no other for the profession.
To mark International Nurses Day today, Saskia Harper and Cara Forrester spoke to health care workers from across the regions about their careers as they help to keep the NHS wheels turning
There are 5,244 nurses working in NHS Tayside. We spoke to four from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Lynne Douglas and Marie Maclennan work as paediatric oncology outreach nurse specialists with children who have leukaemia and other types of cancer.
Marie said: “Some people see nurses as the person who is taking your temperature, giving you medicine and doing lots of practical things, but a lot of our time is spent building relationships, supporting parents. Sometimes you feel like a counsellor. It’s so very different.”
Lynne said: “People think it must be hard and sad, and it can be, but it can also be enjoyable building those relationships with families.”
Stella Digba is a senior charge nurse. She said: “Becoming a senior charge nurse has been the biggest challenge of my career. I was delighted to get the role and felt I was given the opportunity to develop, lead and to serve this patient group and to work alongside a fantastic team.”
Denise Marshall is a senior charge nurse with Gynaecology Outpatient Services. She has been a nurse for more than 30 years and said: “I am extremely proud to be a nurse. There have been many highs, from undertaking a specialist role in a service I loved – breast cancer care – to helping patients and relatives when they were at their lowest, often following the death of a loved one.”
Mary Ballantyne returned to nursing due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is currently a Covid-19 team lead as part of the Angus Immunisation Team.
“I feel very proud of my nursing colleagues,” she said. “Coming back has been the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m now back to stay.”
Karen Laing works as a community learning disability nurse at Wedderburn House in Dundee.
“The biggest challenge of my career has been seeing clients who have really flourished, attending groups and enjoying life and that being put on hold due to Covid,” she said. “Some people have become socially isolated and anxious about life returning to how it was.”
Paula Moor has worked in the profession for 47 years and has seen it evolve in that time. She currently works in Perthshire as a district nursing charge nurse.
“We pride ourselves in the care we provide for our patients, especially those who are receiving end-oflife care at home,” she said. “This has been exceptionally challenging during the pandemic.”
Alison Orr started as a nurse just a year ago in Ward 51 at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy. During the pandemic, this was the ward used to treated Covid19 patients.
“I had to get up to speed really fast,” she said. “Being part of a team makes it feel like we are a family.”
Nicola Robertson, NHS Fife associate director of nursing, has been in the profession for 30 years,
“Nurses can train to become highly specialised in their field, advanced practitioners, train in other areas or go into research,” she said.
But for Nicola, one thing still remains the same: “Nurses are here to deliver the best care possible and come to work to deliver a high standard of care.”
Amy Piper is a family nurse supervisor in Fife who has been working in the NHS for more than 30 years. Working together more with the mums and families has been the biggest change she has seen and gives a fresh approach to delivering the best care.
She said: “What we know is appreciated is that the mums have one professional the whole way through. We get to know them well, they learn to trust us and talk.
“It gives them experience of a positive relationship with a professional. It’s a partnership – they are experts in their own lives and what is right for them.”