My Working Day

Eilish Hardiman : director of nursing at St James's Hospital and a part-time MBA student in the Smurfit School of Business

Eilish Hardiman: director of nursing at St James's Hospital and a part-time MBA student in the Smurfit School of Business

Meetings take up most of my day, whether they be with the Department of Health, or the hospital's ICT department, or a nursing group, and they usually start about 8am, so I like to be in my office at about 7.30am to prepare and read my e-mails.

A lot of my job is group communication and discussion, making decisions, which I enjoy and it keeps things interesting, but one thing I dislike are unproductive or wasteful meetings. I just don't have the time.

The first big event of the day is the bed status report; how many have come in to A&E over the night, how many need placing, whether we've had any deaths. That will set the tone for the day.

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If we need to place more than 15 we'll be uncomfortable, over 18 will be a problem. Normally it's not that high though.

As director of nursing I have responsibility for the nursing staff, I'm the senior professional within the hospital. My mother was a nurse, so I suppose it was always in the blood.

I qualified 18 years ago and then did my degree in the University of Ulster, which would have been unusual at the time.

I then spent a few years in all the major hospitals in Dublin before settling here and working my way up.

As the head of the profession, you have to be a member of that profession but a lot of my work is in the corporate sector now, so last year I decided to take on the Executive MBA in the Smurfit school and we've just finished the first year.

It's a part-time course, so I'm in two nights a week and then we have a study group of five. The class is quite large, over 70, and we're streamed, so most of the interaction is with the study group and we have very varied backgrounds: accountancy, pharmaceutical, financial and public health.

It's a big workload but I see the semesters as 12-week blocks with exams at the end and you just have to cut out the cinema, going out, holidays and get through it.

I usually finish work around 5pm; I am always contactable in an emergency, but you need to be disciplined.

I have to balance my life and my work, I have two babies and a very understanding husband.

I chose to do the MBA because I feel it will help me with the corporate side of my job and give me skills to move on in a different direction if I want to, although I am happy here at the moment.

(In interview with Robin O'Brien Lynch)