A day in the Life of Clinical Nurse Specialist, Ciara Cahill
My name is Ciara Cahill. I am a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Heart Failure Clinic at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). I’ve worked in various roles in the Cardiology Department at UHL since 2008. I have three small boys so life outside of work is very busy, with most of my evenings spent on the sidelines of Under-8 training and matches!
The Heart Failure Clinic is an outpatient-based service and we manage more than 450 active patients. The heart failure service is led by the Clinical Nurse Specialist, supported by cardiology registrars and consultants as required. We provide telephone support to patients and GPs. For GPS, our support enables them to provide a high level of care for the patient in the community.
What I enjoy most about my work
The part of my job I enjoy most is seeing the difference I make to the lives of patients and their families every day. I have patients attending the clinic for many years and I get to know them and their families so well. We aim to prevent hospital admission and in most cases, this is achieved by educating the patient to recognise early signs and symptoms of deterioration.
As heart failure is a chronic disease, many of our patients will unfortunately reach end of life while still attending our services. I liaise with cardiac physiology colleagues, palliative home care team and GPs to provide symptom management for patients when end of life is approaching. When death is inevitable, it gives some satisfaction to know that these patients have reached the end of their lives peacefully and comfortably in their own homes surrounded by those who loved them dearly.
My favourite part of the day
My favourite part of my day is without doubt meeting the patients, especially elderly people who love to share stories about the many adventures of their home, work and love lives! They always have words of wisdom to impart. I had one patient attend, with his wife, for his first visit to the clinic recently on the eve of their 67th wedding anniversary. That made for an interesting consultation listening to their stories of meeting, getting married and the various stages of family life together.
A key focus for our team
We are currently looking towards expanding our service to see patients in hospital prior to discharge. This is a crucial time for providing education on the diagnosis and management of their condition which will be further built upon when they come back to the outpatient clinic. In the meantime, we provide education and support to nurses working in the wards across UHL to enable them provide evidenced-based care to patients in their care.
The newly established community integrated care teams provide a huge opportunity for the heart failure service. We will be working closely together to provide care at the most appropriate and convenient location for patients.
Our cohort of patients varies hugely. We accommodate some with early morning appointments so they can attend before going to work. Our more elderly patients find it difficult getting up and out in the mornings and in those cases, we arrange late morning or afternoon appointment times.
Opportunity for nurses
Cardiology as a speciality is a very acute, progressive, research-based area of medicine that’s constantly changing and evolving. If given the opportunity, we would encourage nurses to embrace Cardiology and help shape the care provided to the patients who require our expertise.