Ms Siobhán Murphy:

I worked on a Covid-positive ward since 24 March. We were catapulted into this pandemic but we faced it with strength as a team. We are nurses who work 13-hour shifts. We work days, nights and weekends. My experience was of overexposure and burnout due to the challenge we faced already pre-Covid, with understaffing and being overwhelmed with the ever-expanding role of being a staff nurse. As one cannot put a time limit on providing care to a patient, I suppose the exposure to Covid-19 as a nurse was profound. There have been psychological and physical side effects and symptoms that I still experience today. I am still off work at the moment, as are three of my colleagues, while four colleagues required hospital treatment due to contracting Covid-19. A total of 13 out of 20 of my colleagues contracted Covid-19.