Gemma Donegan, Public Health Nurse (PHN) 

Gemma Donegan is a Public Health Nurse working in the Primary Care Centre in Shannon, Co Clare. Prior to becoming a Public Health Nurse Gemma worked for four years as a midwife and for three years as a general nurse.

“Becoming a Public Health Nurse was always on my radar.  When I was completing my undergraduate studies, I spend two weeks on Community placement.  I got to shadow a PHN and it was inspiring to see how she was integral to her local community. She knew her community and her caseload and was self-motivated and driven.”

“I wanted that for myself. Now that I am working as a Public Health Nurse I find the staff I work with really supportive. There is always someone to connect with and my manager is really accessible”

Gemma says there is a huge variety in her workdays from assisting new parents during the postnatal period to caring for patients on their end of life journey and everything in between.

“It’s very dynamic who you are seeing and where you are seeing them. Every day is a new challenge. There’s variety in what you do but it’s not overwhelming. There is great job satisfaction. You are helping people to achieve a better quality of life and you are not just looking after the patient but their family as well. You are very much at the centre, bringing everyone together.”