For the month of May, we are delighted to announce Catherine O’Flynn as the winner of our ‘Hero of the Month’. Catherine is the HCA/Activities coordinator at Maria Goretti Nursing Home in Limerick. In order to highlight Catherine’s work and the great work being carried out at Maria Goretti Nursing Home, we sat down with Catherine for a short Zoom interview.
We would like to thank Catherine and staff at Maria Goretti for their tireless work, keeping their residents safe and proud record of having no cases of COVID19.
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Why were you nominated for this award?
I was nominated by my colleagues and I was humbled and grateful for the nomination as I realise the importance of putting the residents first during the pandemic. I believe I am very versatile and can adapt to any task or role that is required of me and I am willing to help and support in any aspect of the Nursing Home at any time.
What’s the biggest challenge facing frontline workers during COVID?
The look of sadness on the residents face due to the lack of contact with their loved ones and the outside world. The challenge here was working to make the residents day to day living as normal as possible. We did this by looking at all our resources i.e what staff could sing, play an instrument or entertain the residents.
We also had to educate ourselves and the residents and their families in new forms of communication and technology i.e zoom calls, video calls and window visits. We had to be mindful that residents emotions could be high or low after this new form of communication and had to be on hand to spend quality time with them to let them talk or cry or just share in their joy.
What’s been your most rewarding experience at work during the pandemic?
The most rewarding was seeing that all our hard work as individuals and a team had kept our residents, staff and families safe to date. It also brought residents and employee together as one big family during this time.
What’s the current pandemic taught you about people’s resilience during times of adversity?
Firstly the residents have thought me to take one step at a time and to appreciate every day no matter how hard thing look they always work out. They also have thought me if you try your hardest and give 100% you will have no regrets.
If you could give a fellow frontline worker one piece of advice, what would that be?
This is the Residents home and we work in their home. We can go home and out to our loved ones and families and make sure they are safe. If you have a spare 5 minutes to spend with the residents you will be surprised what you may learn as they can teach us so much.
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If you would like to nominate a fellow nursing home frontline worker that deserve recognition for their hard work and sacrifice, contact us today. Winners will receive a voucher.
