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May she rest in peace. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends.

adequate staffing levels and job demarcation,  not by pay rises and shorter working hours in themselves

Which all comes down to not being able to retain nurses!
There are large numbers of nurses being trained every year in Ireland! Where are they all going?

Also i don't mean to criticise i just want people to understand the PR spin does not paint an accurate picture on either side.
I personally could do without work to rule or striking and almost feel embarassed by the whole thing at present. i really think things need to change but am not convinced that current action is the best way to achieve it.

Tyronie,
What exactly did yu expect to be doing when you started nursing?

I expected to 'nurse' patients. which is still the part of the job i love - spending time with the patients, providing care, assisting them in their daily activities. Hands on nursing!!!

What i didn't expect was to be so physically and mentally exhausted that i am unable to provide adequate individual care, to be left in charge of 35 lives without the necessary experience or support, to work in a low-morale workfoce, to spend hours on administration and bureaucracy, to be verbally and physically abused as i try to carry out essential duties.

Naive maybe.......

A nurse's/ student midwife opinion.........

It is with complete anger and fury that i have read some of the above arrogant and ill-informed posts! I trained for four years in general nursing and worked for two years in the medical division in Beaumont hospital (now working in maternity in drogheda)and the first thing i would tell anyone considering becoming a nurse is - Don't do it!

There is no way that any of my peers earned anywhere near 56k. I constantly felt under severe pressure both on duty and when i left after my 13hr shift  - even as a junior nurse i was left in charge of a ward of 35 patient - many critically ill. i had to liase with doctors, other members of the multidisciplinary team and families as well as provide the more important basic nursing care to the patient. In the dublin hospitals, from my experience, retention of nurse's is a major problem and there is an increasing foreign national workforce being recruited. Many girls i worked with have give up nursing altogether because f the demands made on them.
Also is it fair that a fully trained nusre is in charge of a ward and yet those who are answerable to her and whom she takes responsibility for are paid much more than her?

In my relatively short career i have been regularly verbally abused, been bruised by patients, had severe back pain and left work in tears. Most nurse's will paint a similar picture if not worse (and i have heard much worse).

In the last week from my own experience i have found that we have had much more time to spend with patients on hands on nursing care - rather than spend an age on administration and telephone enquiries.

I find it really hard to understand how people who work in totally different fields can comment on anyone else's job. i know i couldn't start commenting on what a teacher, accountant, engineer, farmer etc do because only they truly now the pressures on them. it is extremley arrogant for anyone to listen to the spin from either side of an argument and decide they know it all. Please try to understand that the PR wheels are in action on both sides!

Is there any official link for the McNamee Awards, just looking for a few more details, criteria etc ?

Said on radio final will be in Healy pk on sat evenin! Did i not see/hear that if Tyrone won it would be in Breffni?
Northern Sound commentator did not seem to be most reliable source of information!

"if we could just get them to shorten the game to 35mins just think what we could have won..................."

Sean Cavanagh to captain team in absence of Ricey - obvious enough choice!

So thats three sausage suppers, two cheeseburgers, four hot-dogs, three fish suppers, six quarterpounders, onion rings and a....diet coke!

Overheard in Croker;

One Dublin supporter to another when Tyrone were up by 2 points
"Ah typical Dublin, they are just like Liverpool they can't beat the easy teams........"