COVER STORY 25
RNID Section officers pictured atThe Richmond: Patricia McCartney, Marian Spelman, Ailish Byrne,
Jacinta Mulhere and Ann Marie O’Reilly
The RNID philosophy As the specialty celebrates its 60th anniversary, Michael Pigeon heard from RNID Section officers about the highs and lows of ID nursing
– they have to be at home taking care of their son or daugh- ter. So often it’s up to us, as RNIDs, to speak up for them a n d f i g h t t h e i r corner,” she said. This is why the five got involved i n t h e I NMO . “Sometimes you really have to fight
your role is a little less clear. You’re not working in the one institution the whole time. That’s new for us.” “It’s not new to me,” laughed Ms O’Reilly. “I’ve been working for 34 years in the community! I think it’s that the system is less clear on what our role should be. We all know what we should be doing, but sometimes it feels like the health service doesn’t know or properly value what we do,” she said. Ms Byrne agreed: “The social model is being driven in the sector. You some- times get the sense that the policy makers think we’re too medical – almost a nega- tive addition. We are the only dedicated specialist in the sector, we’re very person centred. We have to be.” All five point to problems in the sector, many of which will be familiar to all nurses and midwives. Short staffing, a lack of political will to support services, and an institutional distrust of nurses looking to lead. Patricia McCartney, a CNM/PIC in a Dublin service, spoke of her first experience with HIQA: “It was immensely stressful. You’re rightly held to a high standard, but you have all this responsibility without any real autonomy.” Ms Byrne sees the impact this has on families of services users. “Parents in particular are so disenfranchised by the system and lack of services. They can’t be standing outside the Dáil or lobbying
“I love working with the people,” said Marian Spelman, an RNID in Clarenbridge, Galway. “It’s not a sector where someone gets sick, they come to you, they get better and then they go home. This is about a lifelong experience where you cultivate relationships with them.” All five officers of the INMO’s RNID Section agree that intellectual disability nursing is exactly where they want to be. “You have different philosophies across professions and within nursing, but it’s the philosophy here that I really love,” adds Ann-Marie O’Reilly, an ADON at St Michael’s House. “I love the lifelong rela- tionships you can build with people with ID. It’s so person centred and we’re seeing that adopted in other areas of nursing too.” Jacinta Mulhere, RNID, agrees: “So many of the people in ID services can just value you for who you are, based on the relation- ship you’ve built up with them. “It’s not just the people you work with directly, it’s the families too. You know you’re able to help them, maybe relieve the pressure, and that makes such a differ- ence to them,” she said. It wasn’t always this way, though. ID services have changed hugely over the past 60 years. “It’s gone from group settings or institutional care more to individual, per- son-centred services,” said Ailish Byrne, a Laois RNID. “Many are now community based, which is brilliant. But in some ways
to get what your service user needs and it’s reassuring to know that you have the backing of the union when you need it,” Ms Mulhere explained. Ms McCartney agreed, remembering a time nearly 20 years ago: “We had some big problems in work, both for staff and service users. I got on to Dave Hughes in the INMO (deputy general secretary). He got me trained up as a union rep and man- agement’s attitude completely changed. It was so empowering for us.” “When I first joined the union, it was frowned upon a bit. You were seen as a bit of an agitator. But you have to be. That’s behind the principles of being an RNID. Caring, but always fighting for the people you care for,” she added. All the officers nod. Ms Spelman replied: “That’s the thing with RNID. There aren’t many of us. We’re small. But we’re mighty.”
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