North Belfast woman Alice McCrory has been one of Marie Curie’s ‘angels’ for the last 36 years, providing dedicated end-of-life nursing care.
The mother-of-three and grandmother-of-four has just retired after working as the former ward sister at the Belfast Hospice.
More recently, Alice worked as a Clinical Nurse Manager, looking after nurses who care for people in their homes across the city.
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Alice, 64, has spent her entire nursing career helping people either come into the world or leave it, both in the most caring way possible.
Alice was born in Glasgow but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of seven. She has lived on the Antrim Road for most of her life with her husband Frank. The couple have three sons, Conor, Francis and Simon and four beautiful grandchildren.
After leaving Dominican College, Fortwilliam, she trained as a registered nurse before later qualifying as a midwife. As a young mother, she chose to accept a part-time post with Marie Curie at its Belfast Hospice in 1986, always thinking that she would return to the maternity ward one day.
“Well, I never returned to midwifery and I’ve never looked back since,” said Alice. “I think the work appealed to me so much as I had just left a nursing environment where I helped women give birth and support them and their partners as they brought life into the world.
“Then I helped people, patients and families through dying process and leaving the world. Both are very special occasions. As a nurse, I was honoured to be part of this in people’ lives.
“I think it was watching how my mother and her family looked after elderly family with such tender loving care that made think about working in palliative nursing.
“When I started to work at Marie Curie, I had the time to work one to one with a patient and their family members. I felt that it gave me permission to be that nurse I always wanted to be for my patients and give what you know the patient really needed and that’s something I’ve really valued.”
Alice spent 15 years as the Hospice ward sister before taking other management roles such as running Marie Curie’s Hospice patient service.
For the past 16 years, she has been a clinical nurse manager for 46 nurses and healthcare assistants who care for end-of-life patients across Belfast in their homes, working alongside district nurses and GPs.
Her challenging role become ever more demanding during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alice explained: “In reality we have been preparing for a pandemic my entire working career. We worked very long days, sometimes up to midnight, to ensure that everything was covered for our patient’s care and that our nurses and healthcare assistants were kept up to date with all the latest advice.
“Our biggest challenge was making sure that our nurses felt safe, protected. Because they were our frontline, we needed them to know that we were behind them and supporting them as they worked throughout the pandemic.”
Despite her retirement, Alice is not completely cutting her ties with Marie Curie and plans to help with nurse supervision in a supporting role.
She is encouraging other student nurses about to qualify or more experienced nurses who are looking for a change, to think about palliative care nursing with Marie Curie.
“We are quite selective about who we employ in Marie Curie for the simple reason that they are the face of Marie Curie and are involved at such an important time in a patient’s life so you want the right people to be there. You have to get it right,” said Alice.
“Of course, at times it is both professionally and personally challenging. But what gets you through when you are dealing with death and dying every day is knowing that you are doing your best for the person and have helped them through a difficult moment because you’re trained and are professional.
“It’s also the wonderful colleagues who help in turn to support you. You have to be a good listener and empathise with them while not being emotionally fragile yourself.
“Sometimes that’s impossible but you have to be there and be alert to assess what the person needs to change the moment that they are experiencing so that they can be made comfortable.”
Alice said a palliative care nurses’ handover at the end of each shift is an important tool in helping them cope.
“We have the trust and confidence in our colleagues to take on the care of that person at the end of our shift,” she explained. “I had an amazing clinical supervisor and when she talked to us about the handover, she would literally use her hands to signify physically handing something over.
“It was now time to return to your life outside. You give your very best while you are there but you must also care for yourself and your family. It’s the satisfaction of knowing you have played your part and you have done your best that’s special and keeps you going.”
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