Children's ward manager at SWAH in Fermanagh retires

“I feel that I was born to be a nurse,” said Irene, speaking to The Impartial Reporter following her retirement.

“I knew when I was 13, I wanted to be a nurse because my grandfather was ill in hospital and I just knew that was the right career for me to pursue.”

Irene’s nursing career began when she left her home of Lisnaskea at the age of 18 to begin her training in adult nursing at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Following her training, Irene returned to Fermanagh where she started working in the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen in 1985.

“I got a job on the adult side first of all in the Erne,” said Irene, going on to explain how she moved into children’s nursing: “Because I was one of the younger nurses at the time, there was some holiday cover to be facilitated in the Children’s Ward and I was sent up there.

“I never got out of it again. I really drifted into Children’s Ward but then I did my children’s training in 2003.”

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In 2012, when the SWAH opened, Irene continued her nursing career at the Children’s Ward of the new hospital.

Talking about the most rewarding part of her career, Irene said: “It’s actually being by the bedside, I’ve always felt that.

“Children generally get better quickly and that was a highlight. Seeing a child come in sick and walking with them through their recovery.

“Yes of course there were children that were terminal that I nursed as well, end of life care and some of that were delivered in the hospital but I also did some work in the Children’s Hospice at Home service in Fermanagh and Tyrone.

“I would very much have a passion about end of life care and looking after complex needs children,” said Irene, a mother-of-three who has an adult son with autism and severe learning difficulties.

“I think that’s where I developed my passion for those vulnerable individuals that you needed to advocate for and support parents with.

“That’s what I’m drawn to.”

Teamwork

Irene began her career as a staff nurse and progressed to deputy sister and in recent years became a ward manager.

“I never had the vision that I would go into management. I was quite happy at the bedside. I drifted into it because there was sickness on the ward and I was the most senior but I had a good staff; teamwork and communication were key to anything,” said Irene, adding: “If you communicated with your staff and encouraged an ethos of teamwork, that was very positive. That was my vision.”

Irene Kettyle.

However, the role wasn’t without its challenges, particularly with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The challenges of Covid over the last couple of years [wasn’t easy], and with guidelines changing, it was hard to keep up with everything.

“The pace was so fast. It was when you were in the leadership role on the ward, you were trying to keep everybody safe. You were trying to keep staff informed, trying to empower staff but I have always felt as somebody who has taken the lead, you must invest in your staff.

“Staff will give of their best when they see that you invest in them,” she said.

When asked what she will miss most about her work now that she has retired, Irene explained: “I’ll miss the patient contact and I’ll miss staff and the camaraderie, we tried to keep some of that going through Covid as well.

“Even though we couldn’t get out socially, we tried to keep the spirits up on the ward as best we could. There were challenges and there were days that you were working on very short numbers of staff.

“It really is the nursing staff and the auxilliary staff on the ward, they are the people on the floor that are delivering the patient care.”

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Although now officially retired from her post of ward manager at the Children’s Ward in SWAH, Irene is still helping out at the Fermanagh hospital, working at the neonatal unit which she explained is “very short on staff”.

“At the minute neonatal are very short on staff, so I am helping down there. I did the odd shift for them so at least I know a wee bit about the area.

“I’m not a specialist by any means,” she said, adding that the neonatal unit are currently looking to recruit more staff.

Irene Kettyle.