NURSING in Limerick is a family affair for five sisters and their children, who all work or study as nurses at Limerick hospitals.
The family took time out of their busy schedules to mark International Nurses Day (May 12) – the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.
For the five O’Keeffe sisters from Athlacca, International Nurses Day is truly a family affair. Joining the Mid West nursing workforce at various points since the 1980s, Eileen Williams, Angela O’Farrell, Marie O’Brien, Triona Neenan, and Noelle (Cregan) have amassed a total of more than 175 years’ nursing experience between them.
Following the example set by an earlier generation in their family (four of their aunts were nurses who trained and worked in hospitals in England and Cork), the siblings’ passion for nursing has now passed on to the next generation.
Eileen Williams’s son and daughter, Sam and Clodagh, Triona Neenan’s daughter Ciara, and Noelle Cregan’s son Patrick are all BSc Nursing Students at the School of Nursing and Midwifery in the University of Limerick.
It doesn’t stop there: Angela O’Farrell’s daughters have entered nursing training at MTU Tralee, Emma in Mental Health Nursing and Aisling in General Nursing.
Eileen is a Clinical Nurse Manager (CNM2) in Nursing Manpower; Triona is a Registered Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Medical Oncology, UHL; Noelle is a CNM1 at St John’s Hospital; Angela is CNM2 in Infection Prevention and Control, UHL; and Marie, the first of the sisters to become a nurse, is a CNM2 in the Intensive Care Unit, UHL
The family will celebrate International Nurses Day with thousands of nurses across the region this Tuesday (May 12) – the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.