(December 12th 2024) Today, 65 new nurses will graduate at Tallaght University Hospital to begin their careers in Healthcare. Among them will be 39-year-old Sarah King, who successfully completed her nursing degree as a mature student who is also the mother of three girls.
After school, Sarah completed a law degree in college but was unlucky to have graduated just as the banking collapse was happening in Ireland. She says at that point given the economic conditions (2008/09) law internships were hard to come by, so she started to work in accounts. At the same time (in her early 20’s) Sarah met her husband David (a graphic designer). The couple married when Sarah was 25 and bought a house in 2010. Given they now had a mortgage to pay, Sarah continued working in accounts.
Their first daughter, Laragh, was born in 2013. When Isla arrived in 2016, Sarah was in the process of taking exams to qualify as a chartered accountant. She says it was during this (Isla’s) maternity leave that she began to realise that her heart just wasn’t in accountancy, and that she needed to change career.
Around this time, Sarah’s aunt Mary, a civil servant, died and left her some money, which helped her take the brave leap to go back to university and retrain as a nurse. On reflection Sarah says, “At the back of my mind, I had always been interested in a career in healthcare; there were lots of doctors and nurses in my extended family.”
Sarah says while some people are very happy in accountancy she knew deep down it just wasn’t the right road for her. “Nursing gives me a sense of satisfaction that I don’t feel I would ever have gotten as an accountant. Deep down I always believed my daughters deserved a mother who was happy and I wasn’t happy.”
So In 2020, Sarah made the brave step to apply to Trinity College Dublin (TCD) to do her nursing degree. (*At this point baby no three Heidi had arrived.) It wasn’t a path without its hurdles, due to the fact Sarah already had a law degree, her four year nursing degree was to cost her €32k. Also, when she applied to Trinity, Sarah was initially worried she might not get in. This was because her leaving cert of 2003 had to compete with significant grade inflation due to estimated points that were awarded to the class of 2020, due to COVID-19.
Thankfully in the end Sarah did get her place in TCD which saw her undertake much of her placement on the wards in Tallaght University Hospital. To help fund her degree, Sarah also worked weekends as a Health Care Assistant at the Bon Secours Hospital in Glasnevin.
The new nursing graduate says she couldn’t have completed her training and degree without the incredible support of her husband David and parents Mum Phil and Dad Tony. Sarah, David and the three girls live nearby. She also says her friend on the road Dee was an incredible support, as she juggled a nursing degree and her work in the Bons Secours and parenting her three girls.
Sarah’s eldest daughter Laragh is now 11, Isla is eight and Heidi is six and she admits while she was training to be a nurse, there were sacrifices and family events she couldn’t attend for the girls as she was either working, in college, or on placement in the Hospital. “It was hard, my age helped me and having lived a life that wasn’t for me, I was very committed and learned to ask for help. I worked a lot of nights during my training, there were a lot of sacrifices. “On reflection Sarah feels although going back and getting the degree was a lot of hard work, she is now really proud of how her family has coped.
Sarah plans to continue working as a nurse at Tallaght University Hospital and has a particular interest in palliative nursing. During her training, Sarah said she saw the importance of being able to care for people in their final days and doing all that is possible to make sure that people who are dying experience a good death. She says working as a nurse gives her a real sense of meaning, “I love taking care of people”.
Nursing students complete 81 weeks on placement in the Hospital during their BSc Degree in General nursing which is undertaken in academic partnership with Trinity College Dublin. 97% of those graduating today plan to continue working at Tallaght University Hospital. All the qualifications today given out today will be conferred by the TUH Director of Nursing & Integrated Care Áine Lynch who will be joined at the graduation by Professor Anne-Marie Brady, Chair of the Hospital Board and Chair of Nursing & Chronic Illness in the School of Nursing & Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin.
ENDS
