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BBC News
4 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
From Cork to Maidenhead: An Irish nurse's story
A nurse who moved from Ireland to Berkshire in 1948 at the age of 19 to join the newly created National Health Service (NHS) was a "pioneer", her daughter has McCarthy was one of thousands of Irish women recruited to train and work in British hospitals after the end of World War Davies said her mother, who died last year aged 95, "absolutely loved" her job as a to Radio Berkshire ahead the 77th anniversary of the NHS on 5 July, she said her mother told her it had been "very strict" in the early days. The NHS took control of 480,000 hospital beds in England and Wales in 1948 but it was short of 48,000 nurses so an active recruitment drive was launched in the time, nurse training opportunities in Ireland were limited and expensive, making the chance to train for free in British hospitals with live-in accommodation highly the 1960s there were about 30,000 Irish nurses working in the NHS. Ms Davies said her mother saw an advert and decided she wanted to first spent a year working at a hospital in Highgate, London, on an orthopaedic ward before an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB), she said."About summertime 1949, mum and her friend wanted to apply for a job in Maidenhead," she said."I think working a year on the TB ward was just getting to them, they were seeing a lot of death."Nora spoke fondly of her time in the NHS, said Ms Davies, adding that during the early years she had said it was "very strict" but there was "a lot of camaraderie too".She said her mother had told her of dances at the local church hall which the off-duty nurses would attend and where Nora met her future husband. Ms Davies' daughter Ciara has retraced Nora's journey from Cork to working at Maidenhead General Hospital in Berkshire, as part of her university said: "I started in Ireland, we went to the original green rooms in O'Donovan's where the [nursing] interviews had taken place."Then to where she caught the bus from in Cork. We saw a little bit of Maidenhead but the original building for Maidenhead General Hospital was no longer there."There were some surprises about her life that I didn't know, such as learning about tuberculosis and what her life was like on the TB ward."Nora worked as an NHS nurse for 50 years, retiring at the age of story has been featured in a book, titled Irish Nurses in the NHS - An Oral History, which explores the life experiences of the Irish migrant co-author Prof Louise Ryan said the NHS described how it was "actively recruiting" in Ireland, with advertisements in national and local papers. NHS recruiters travelled throughout the country and carried out interviews with young women in local Ryan said: "Their travel was paid, they earned a salary while they trained - plus they got accommodation in the nurses' home."If you can image parents waving their children off on this mammoth journey across the sea to England – knowing there was secure accommodation was very reassuring – they were very well looked after." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
From Cork to Maidenhead: An Irish nurse's story
A nurse who moved from Ireland to Berkshire in 1948 at the age of 19 to join the newly created National Health Service (NHS) was a "pioneer", her daughter has said. Nora McCarthy was one of thousands of Irish women recruited to train and work in British hospitals after the end of World War Two. Janie Davies said her mother, who died last year aged 95, "absolutely loved" her job as a nurse. Speaking to Radio Berkshire ahead the 77th anniversary of the NHS on 5 July, she said her mother told her it had been "very strict" in the early days. The NHS took control of 480,000 hospital beds in England and Wales in 1948 but it was short of 48,000 nurses so an active recruitment drive was launched in Ireland. At the time, nurse training opportunities in Ireland were limited and expensive, making the chance to train for free in British hospitals with live-in accommodation highly attractive. By the 1960s there were about 30,000 Irish nurses working in the NHS. Ms Davies said her mother saw an advert and decided she wanted to help. Nora first spent a year working at a hospital in Highgate, London, on an orthopaedic ward before an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB), she said. "About summertime 1949, mum and her friend wanted to apply for a job in Maidenhead," she said. "I think working a year on the TB ward was just getting to them, they were seeing a lot of death." Nora spoke fondly of her time in the NHS, said Ms Davies, adding that during the early years she had said it was "very strict" but there was "a lot of camaraderie too". She said her mother had told her of dances at the local church hall which the off-duty nurses would attend and where Nora met her future husband. Ms Davies' daughter Ciara has retraced Nora's journey from Cork to working at Maidenhead General Hospital in Berkshire, as part of her university dissertation. She said: "I started in Ireland, we went to the original green rooms in O'Donovan's where the [nursing] interviews had taken place. "Then to where she caught the bus from in Cork. We saw a little bit of Maidenhead but the original building for Maidenhead General Hospital was no longer there. "There were some surprises about her life that I didn't know, such as learning about tuberculosis and what her life was like on the TB ward." Nora worked as an NHS nurse for 50 years, retiring at the age of 69. Her story has been featured in a book, titled Irish Nurses in the NHS - An Oral History, which explores the life experiences of the Irish migrant nurses. Its co-author Prof Louise Ryan said the NHS described how it was "actively recruiting" in Ireland, with advertisements in national and local papers. NHS recruiters travelled throughout the country and carried out interviews with young women in local hotels. Prof Ryan said: "Their travel was paid, they earned a salary while they trained - plus they got accommodation in the nurses home. "If you can image parents waving their children off on this mammoth journey across the sea to England – knowing there was secure accommodation was very reassuring – they were very well looked after." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Nurses 'proud' to celebrate 40 years of NHS care Nursery nurse congratulated for 45 years of service NHS nurses and healthcare staff offered 5.5% pay rise 'NHS needs fewer managers, more nurses' NHS Irish Nurses in the NHS - An Oral History
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Nurses from Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary remember training days
"At the pub opposite, a lot of the doctors used to go in there when they were on call. And one of them had gone in there carrying a bag of blood."Sarah Wilkins is mid-anecdote, holding court at a meet-up of nurses who trained at the old Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford."He was called out, and he crossed Woodstock Road, fell over onto the pack of blood - and all people could see was a white coat and blood. It looked dreadful."The nurses shout out with laughter. Training at the Infirmary between 1961 and 1976, they've met up today to recapture the memories of their old stomping ground. It's one of their last chances to do on Saturday, the Radcliffe Guild of Nurses, the alumni group they've been members of for decades, will reach its centenary anniversary - and fold due to lack of members."The Infirmary closed in 2007, so we aren't getting new members and our membership is more and more elderly," says president Xante Cummings."Every year we organise a reunion, and the numbers have been dropping off significantly."So we decided we'll get to 100 and then we'll close."It's a sad time for the remaining members, who have used the group to stay in touch with friends from their training they have fond (and often funny) memories of those times. "On night duty we had a desk in the middle of the ward, and in those days everybody smoked," Thelma Sanders says."We used to have a saucer in the desk drawer with water in it so that when the night sister came round you could stab your cigarette out in the water."We forgot to take it out one morning so the day sister came on, pulled the drawer open - to all these wet dog ends."Just as nursing students no longer smoke inside, so the profession has seen many other changes in the years since."We were on the job right from the start, literally starting right from the bottom with bed pans," Sarah says."Whereas I think when you start with books, you don't have that experience."You can't make somebody comfy with their pillows if you've never done it."But for these women, once nurses, now more often patients, some things have stayed the same."For all these inevitable changes, the feeling is still there - comforting and reassuring," Xante says."There are still some wonderful nurses." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Nurse Suddenly Lost Her Sight While Treating Patients. Then Came an Unexpected Diagnosis (Exclusive)
While working in the ER, Breanna T. suddenly lost her vision and kept treating patients as her sight deteriorated She was told it wasn't emergent, but days later, a specialist diagnosed her with acute angle closure glaucoma Breanna's vision has returned, but her story, and viral TikTok, have sparked wider conversations about advocacy and medication side effectsOne moment, Breanna T. was helping patients during a routine emergency room shift, and the next, the world around her was a blur. The ER nurse had no warning before her vision disappeared in both eyes, kicking off a frightening medical mystery that would later go viral on TikTok. In the video, Breanna reenacts what unfolded in those first 48 hours with a pointed 'put a finger down' challenge, recounting how she finished her shift while barely able to see, and the journey that followed before she received a diagnosis. 'I looked up to see who was calling my name, and I couldn't see her at all,' Breanna tells PEOPLE, describing the moment everything changed. 'It was just very shocking to me, because literally 10 seconds before that, I was seeing just fine.' She had just stepped out of a patient's room to assist a fellow nurse when the sudden loss of sight occurred. As panic swelled beneath the surface, her clinical instincts kicked in. 'I cleaned my glasses, I took my blood pressure, I took my blood sugar … I was just trying to go through everything I could think of to fix it,' she says. 'I was also at work, still responsible for helping care for patients, so I was doing my best to keep my composure.' Rather than alerting her team right away, Breanna first tried to troubleshoot the situation herself. She didn't want to raise the alarm until she had ruled out the basics. 'I was like, 'Here's the situation … do you guys have any ideas? Because I've already done everything I can think of,' ' she recalls telling her coworkers and several doctors. 'So then we started spitballing, trying to figure out what else we could test.' She had been trained to recognize red flags for emergencies and was deeply concerned about the possibility of a stroke. But her symptoms weren't fitting into any box. 'Loss of vision is a pretty standard stroke symptom,' she explains. 'But because it was both eyes at the same time and I had no other symptoms, I tried to stay levelheaded.' Her coworkers asked all the right questions, but nothing beyond her vision seemed to be affected. 'People were asking, 'Do you have a headache? Are you nauseous?' But literally, it was just my vision change,' she says. 'So I was honestly at a loss, because this didn't look like the heart attacks, strokes or brain bleeds I've seen before.' After confirming there were no immediate life-threatening causes, the ER team told her to follow up outpatient. As a nurse, Breanna understood why, but as a patient, it felt unsettling. 'I tell patients this all the time, and being on the other side of it was eye-opening,' she says. 'It wasn't life-threatening, but it was still scary not knowing what was going to happen next.' After her shift, she tried to book an urgent appointment with her optometrist, but found herself stuck. She couldn't even get far enough into a conversation to explain why she needed care. 'They'd say, 'We don't have openings,' before I could tell them I was having an emergent vision change,' she says. 'I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.' With emergency services having done all they could, and no specialist available, she was left waiting and hoping. Her boyfriend began calling providers on her behalf, trying to get her seen. 'It was just really frustrating,' she says. 'I felt like I was being stopped before I was even able to tell anybody why I needed an immediate visit.' In total, Breanna spent five days with severely compromised vision. On the first day, she received contacts that somewhat helped, but even those came with side effects. 'They weren't perfect, and they gave me more headaches than not being able to see,' she says. 'So I was only wearing them when I absolutely had to.' When she finally got an appointment with an optometrist, she decided to go alone. She had no idea just how serious the visit would become. 'He stayed really calm, but started asking questions that felt odd,' she says. 'Then he told me my eye scans didn't look normal. My pressures were way above average, and he could see swelling.' The diagnosis was acute angle closure glaucoma, a rare condition that can come on rapidly and without warning. The optometrist told her she needed to see a specialist immediately or head straight to a hospital with ophthalmology on call. 'It was 4:30 p.m. on a Friday,' Breanna says. 'I was scared I'd have to go back to the ER and start all over again.' Though her boyfriend and mom rushed to be with her, Breanna had faced the alarming news alone. And in that moment, her thoughts went straight to her son. 'I'm a mom. I have a toddler,' she says. 'All I could think was, 'Am I going to be able to see my son grow up?' ' The disease typically takes years to develop, but Breanna had deteriorated within hours. Doctors were optimistic her case would be reversible, but the wait was excruciating. 'I wasn't ready to stop my medication, but that's what ended up solving it,' she says. 'I stopped taking it that day, and by the time it was out of my system, my vision returned.' Her care team believes the antidepressant triggered the event, likely due to an underlying condition. And for Breanna, the timeline made sense. 'The half-life of the medication lined up with when my vision came back,' she says. 'They're almost 99% sure it was [that].' Breanna hadn't been familiar with her diagnosis before that day. Glaucoma wasn't something she had seen often in the ER, especially not in this form. 'The patients I've cared for had long-term glaucoma, with black spots or floaters — not blurry vision like I had,' she says. 'Even the symptoms didn't line up.' At one point, she was even questioned about exposure to rare diseases due to her line of work. Ebola, measles and Lyme disease were all floated. 'I said no, and I still stand by no,' she says. 'But contact tracing takes weeks, so it's still something we may have to revisit.' Still, because her symptoms cleared after stopping the medication, her team now leans heavily toward that explanation. And they found something else along the way. 'I have an enlarged optic nerve on my left side, which predisposes me to glaucoma,' she says. 'That may be why it happened to me and not someone else.' Breanna will now have yearly checkups to monitor her eye health. The goal is early detection should anything change in the future. 'It was an incidental finding, but a good one,' she says. 'Even though my symptoms have resolved, I'm still at risk for developing another type of glaucoma later on.' Returning to work felt emotional and empowering. It reminded her why she became a nurse in the first place. 'I was just grateful to still be able to do my job,' she says. 'I didn't want to lose my career, and I didn't want to lose my motherhood.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. As for advice for others, Breanna wants people navigating confusing health issues to keep advocating for themselves, even when the answers are slow. It only takes one person to listen. 'You're your biggest advocate,' Breanna says. 'You're the only one who can really explain what's going on in your body.' She also acknowledges how often women are dismissed in medical spaces. And though she works in healthcare, she felt it herself. 'Being a woman makes it harder as they're quicker to brush you off,' she says. 'You just have to keep fighting until you find someone who takes you seriously.' Looking back, she wishes more people understood the emotional toll of being caught between not fitting a diagnosis and not getting answers. Her case didn't follow a pattern, which left even doctors unsure where to start. 'If you don't meet the classic symptoms, people don't know where to begin,' she says. 'That doesn't mean you're not sick.' Her TikTok has sparked wide conversation but she never meant to scare anyone. She just wanted to tell the truth. 'I wasn't making that video to tell people to stop their meds,' she says. 'If you're afraid of side effects, that's okay … just talk to your doctor first.' Read the original article on People
South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- Health
- South China Morning Post
How to age well? Specialist in healthy ageing gives his tips on adding life to your years
He did not win the US$250,000 prize, but Jed Ray Gengoba Montayre was one of 10 finalists out of 100,000 candidates for the 2025 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award. The award recognises outstanding contributions to the nursing field. Montayre, a gerontologist – or healthy ageing specialist – and associate professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Nursing, was considered for the award for his groundbreaking research. He has spent half his life doing research on ageing, from how to counter loneliness to interventions for cognitive impairment. He has pioneered innovative care models for older people and worked on World Health Organization projects. He is also currently writing a book on how to age well. To help others age well, Montayre promotes maintaining social connections and building healthy habits like exercising. Photo: Shutterstock With all this under his belt, one might expect Montayre to be long in the tooth himself, but he is just 38. Montayre has been a keen learner since his childhood in the Philippine province of Cebu.
