Working Life: Ber Power, director of nursing

The challenge is to have the appropriate services in place for patients.

9am

I begin at Killarney Community Hospital by reviewing daily reports sent by ward managers and designed to bring me up to speed on anything of note that arose overnight. These include details of patient transfers, or if somebody passed away or suffered a fall, or any maintenance issues that need attention.

I deal with anything urgent before moving on to check post and emails and respond to queries. Next stop is the short term care unit for the multidisciplinary team report.

10.30am

The short term care unit has 39 beds and a rapid turnover. Discharge plans are ready within 24-48 hours of a patient’s arrival. We are very focused on working out how best to support patients in the community. Patients are thoroughly assessed before discharge to see if any changes need to be made to their home or if there are relatives to help out. It can be quite complex — a patient may want to go home but may not be able to cope.

The challenge is to have the appropriate services in place. We can have up to four admissions a day to this unit and I review these patients in the morning.

11.15am

I discuss a range of issues with patients’ relatives, for example, if someone needs to be transferred to an acute hospital or is in need of end-of-life care.

I also liaise with catering, stores and accounts. There are 92 patients in residential care so new issues arise every day.

2pm

I head into meetings with my own staff or members of the Kerry Area senior management team. We discuss everything from patient safety to incident reviews to industrial relations issues, either face-to-face or by teleconference. If I have the chance, I head onto the wards for half an hour.

4.30pm

I spend the rest of my day doing paperwork. I’m supposed to finish at 6pm, but it can be seven or eight. I’m on-call when I go home.

I do feel I have a strong sense of responsibility towards patients and staff.