Covid-19: 'My first Christmas working on the NHS front line'

Eimir Martin (left) and Cora McCann (right) will spend Christmas day delivering newborn babies

Healthcare graduates across Northern Ireland are preparing to work their first Christmas on the NHS front line.

Many of them will spend Christmas Day on hospital wards rather than at home with their families.

Thousands of medical students were fast-tracked into the workforce earlier this year in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Three of them spoke to BBC News NI about the pressures of working during the festive season.

Daire Rooney, 25, from Holywood, County Down, joined the NHS as a junior doctor earlier this year to tackle rising coronavirus cases.

After graduating, he said he was "thrown in the deep end" working directly with Covid-19 patients, which he described as being an eye-opening experience.

"There was a weekend where there were four or five deaths that I had to confirm and that's when it hit me how serious this was," he said.

"I've seen patients who literally can't catch a breath, as if they've just done an intense bout of exercise.

"One man was so breathless that he couldn't talk to me and although he didn't look too unwell, within a few hours he had passed away.

"It's amazing how quickly these people can deteriorate.

"It can come as a shock when you're talking to a patient and then in three hours you're asked to go and confirm their death."

Daire Rooney, 25, will be working as a junior doctor in Lagan Valley Hospital over Christmas

He said that celebrations over the Christmas period will have "a significant effect" on coronavirus cases but he hopes that new lockdown measures announced by the NI Executive will have an impact.

"The current pressures on the NHS have been long standing and the pandemic has highlighted them further," he said.

"Hopefully the lockdown will reduce that impact until the vaccinations get under way."

'It's a privilege'

Newly-qualified midwife Cora McCann, 25, said "it's a privilege and it's what I signed up for".

Instead of unwrapping presents, she will be delivering babies at South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

"Where else would you rather be on Christmas Day than helping families bring a new baby into the world?," she said.

"A lot of people don't get to do that."

In Northern Ireland, a woman can only be accompanied by a partner in active labour, and for an hour after birth, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"It's so stressful for those women being pregnant in a lockdown, especially with partners having restricted visiting hours," she said.

• NI Covid-19 restrictions: Your questions answered

"Your role is extended as a midwife because you're having to provide extra emotional support for these women and help with their babies because their partners can't be with them all the time.

"We are an extra shoulder to cry on for them."

Newly-qualified staff nurse, Nikita Ward, says working for the NHS can be "overwhelming"

Nikita Ward, 24, from Irvinestown, County Fermanagh, joined the NHS as a stuff nurse earlier this year.

At the start of the pandemic, legislation was passed to allow final year nursing students within six months of registration to join the NHS in a paid capacity.

It was not compulsory for student nurses to sign up, but Ms Ward said she "didn't hesitate one bit to get stuck in".

"As a newly-qualified nurse, you're trying to keep up with the pace," she said.

"The ward is a lot busier and there's a lot more sick people."

'We can be their family members'

Hospital visits in Northern Ireland are currently restricted to allow one family member to visit one patient, once per week.

Ms Ward said that many elderly patients do not have any family members to visit them.

"We can go in and we can be that family member for them for those 12 hours that we're working," she said.

"I try and make them feel good about themselves and make them laugh, especially when their family can't be there for them."

She lives with her grandfather, who has dementia and prostate cancer, putting him in a high risk category for contracting Covid-19.

"The risk is always a the back of my mind of bringing it home to him and that is quite scary," she said.

"Obviously it will be hard missing the family celebrations and the Christmas dinner and things like that but everybody has to do their bit."