Nurses Day: “Nurses have showed incredible flexibility and resilience during the pandemic”
Ferenc Habermann, senior nurse in older person’s services and stroke care, discusses his journey to get to the role he is in now and his experience delivering care during the coronavirus pandemic.
Why did you decide to become a nurse?
I trained and qualified as a nurse in Hungary. I came to the UK in 2007 and joined the Newham Hospital nursing team in 2011 as a senior charge nurse in Theatres. I have always been interested in medicine and decided from an early age that this is the direction I wanted to take for my future career. We had a family friend who was a critical care nurse and she arranged a visit at her workplace to show me how nurses and doctors are working in ITU. I was completely fascinated by critical care and the whole atmosphere in that department. Later she helped me to get a position at the same unit as a volunteer healthcare assistant. I had a fantastic time there, the nursing and medical teams were extremely supportive and I learned many skills which became very useful later in my career. After finishing secondary school I applied for studies at the medical university, but I was unsuccessful getting a place. Instead of waiting another year to get into university, I started nursing training and then decided to become a nurse instead of a doctor.
What is your favourite thing about your job?
Favourite things about my job have changed during my career. As a critical care nurse and later as an anaesthetic nurse the personal contact with patients is limited and sometimes non-existent. During these years my favourite things for me were the technical aspects of my job. You need various skills and up to date theoretical knowledge to look after critically ill patients or safely assist during anaesthesia. As a charge nurse and later as Matron I slowly moved away from clinical duties. In these senior roles your interpersonal skills and your relationship with your staff dominate most of the time. As a senior nurse I look after three wards and I very much enjoy talking to patients and relatives on the ward, assisting them with whatever they need during the hospital stay.
Can you share any learning from nursing during the coronavirus pandemic?
Nurses have showed incredible flexibility and resilience during the pandemic. Wards and teams have been moved around several times in a very short timeframe and I am very proud of the way we have handled these quick succession changes. I do feel that we could do more to quickly communicate these changes next time so we can be even better at adapting to new ways of delivering care. I’ve also learned the importance of maintaining the wellbeing of staff, especially during times like this where we need a strengthened approach to delivering care.
What do you do in your spare time?
My partner and I bought a house two years ago and we are still in the process of restoring it. This means lately I have been spending a lot of time doing DIY work at the weekends and in the evenings. I also enjoy gardening, we have a greenhouse and we are growing our own vegetables. I like cooking and baking, but recently have not had much time for it!
My other passion is travelling, which this year proves to be rather difficult, but I am being optimistic to resume with some trips in the coming year.