Marie Watson: Looking after other people’s children is such an honour 

Marie Watson is a Clinical Nurse Manager with the Children’s Unit in Cork University Hospital

Clinical Nurse Manager, Marie Watson, at Cork University Hospital, Wilton, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

When asked how long she has been in her current role, and indeed how long she has been a nurse, Marie Watson fakes an outraged “Ohh!” as though she had been asked directly her age, and laughs. “I have been nursing since I was 18,” she says. “That’s all you’re gonna get!”

As the clinical nurse manager for the children’s unit in Cork University Hospital (CUH), Marie is one of the senior nurse managers for the department, working hands-on as well as covering managerial duties. A large portion of her job is teaching, working with staff and students.

“I’ve been in this role probably 10 years now,” she says. “I started my career in the Mercy and the middle of my career was in Great Ormond St in London, and then I came home to CUH. I took a little sabbatical and was looking after children in Edel House, and then came back.

“I’ve been a ward sister on two of the wards here, Ladybird and Puffin, and I’ve worked on all the wards. We look after children from birth to 16 here, and because I manage the unit, you could find me on any ward, with the tiny tots as well as the 15- and 16-year-olds.”

When asked whether she thinks nursing, and paediatric nursing especially, is a vocation, she is thoughtful in her reply. “I think you have to be a very special nurse to be a good nurse. Is it a vocation? I have to be very careful, because my Master’s colleagues and my degree colleagues will say no, it’s not, but models of nursing will say yes, it is.”

She has a Master’s level degree, something she says a lot of nurses have now, and something she says takes real determination to pursue while working full time. “But vocation-wise? I don’t know. I want to say yes. Because to put up with what we’ve put up with for the last 18 months, you’d have to love this job. To do what we sometimes have to do, you have to absolutely love what you do.”

When asked about the best part of being a paediatric nurse, she replies immediately: “The children.” She says the kids she meets every day make her job worthwhile, and she believes the same is true for all of her colleagues. “You know, even on the bad days, the kids make it worthwhile. It’ll be something they’ll say, something they’ll do, or to see a sick child going home is worthwhile.”

The worst part of being a paediatric nurse, she says, is the saddest part, when the worst thing possible happens. “The worst thing that can happen is when a child dies. It doesn’t happen often, thankfully, but you never forget the children who have left us. They all leave a little mark on your heart.”

Seeing children sick can be very hard on those who are caring for them, caring in both senses of the word. “We’re human, all of us. A lot of us are parents. And it’s hard seeing children suffer, it’s hard seeing them be sick.

“What is amazing about looking after children is they get better and they get better so much quicker than adults do. And they trust you. They trust you with what you’re doing to make them better, which is incredible, and parents trusting us to do the work we do is incredible as well, and we couldn’t do the work without the parents being there.”

The Cork native says her greatest hope for the future is a purpose-built children’s department in CUH. “It will be amazing when it happens, and it will happen, and parents, staff, and the kids so deserve it. That will be phenomenal when it happens.”

She reacts modestly when asked if she would like to say anything about the work of nursing, and laughs, saying the one thing about nurses is they absolutely hate talking about themselves.

“We do the job because we love it,” she responds. “We go about our business and we do it quietly, mostly behind closed doors. We have an exceptional unit here providing incredible care to kids, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a manager here. I work with exceptional nurses and they’re just a breed onto themselves. We have amazing people here, and they make my life so much easier, working here.”

Returning to the ‘vocation’ question, is nursing, and paediatric nursing in particular, a career, a life, that Marie Watson might recommend to a young person?

“It’s not for everybody,” she replies. “It’s hard work. It’s 12 to 14 hours on your feet every day, with people asking you questions or telling you what to do. You’re moving, you’re lifting, you’re thinking, you’re giving drugs, every part of your being exists for that 12 hours, you’re absolutely alive, and it is exhausting.” For all of that, she says, she loves her work, and she believes so too do all of her colleagues.

“Paediatric nurses really are a breed entirely unto themselves. We have a very special job to do, looking after other people’s children, and that is such an honour.”