“We all go home sore and sad and tired.”
On January 30, Irish nurses will take industrial action.
Over 37,000 will go on strike for increased pay and better working conditions, in the hope of tackling job retention and staff shortage issues.
Ahead of this, one Irish woman shared her own experience of being a nurse. The thread, which has since gone viral, is powerful, emotive, and incredibly important.
On Twitter, Maylena McEvoy told of the time she cared for a man with dementia who had no family.
She wrote that she had sat and cried with a young mother who was dying of cancer. “She told me her little girl was terrified of her and wanted her old mother back,” she said. “My heart broke that night and all I could do was hold her.”
She told of the time that she “… bought bottles of Club Orange for a young man dying of an AIDS related illness. He took a long time to die.” And the time that somebody threatened to murder her children, and when somebody fell on top of her when she was pregnant.
McEvoy said that she has had to dodge “kicks, slaps and scrapes. I’ve dealt with abuse from visitors. I’ve fought with doctors on behalf of my patients.”
She said that all nurses had similar stories, and that all nurses deserve support.
“We all go home sore and sad and tired,” she wrote.
“We do our best but we’ve had enough. We need more nurses. We need better pay and conditions. Please, listen to us when we say we need help. Please stand with us.”
You can read McEvoy’s powerful thread in full here:
https://twitter.com/MaylenaMcEvoy/status/1083474974919266305
https://twitter.com/MaylenaMcEvoy/status/1083474979587530752
https://twitter.com/MaylenaMcEvoy/status/1083474983370874880
Irish nurses voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action late last year due to issues around pay, recruitment, and staff shortages.
The union has said that a 12 percent pay increase will align them with other health professionals and reduce job retention issues.
Almost 40,000 nurses will go on a 24 hour strike on January 30.
