Meet some of the nurses taking part in a museum exhibition

Local NHS nurses are being featured in a new museum exhibition exploring and celebrating nursing in the region.

Nursing the Tees Valley Exhibition is open now at Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar. The exhibition shares the memories and experiences of nurses about what working in the Tees Valley is like.

The nurses work or have worked at NHS organisations in the region, including:

• North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
• South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Over the past year, they have been telling their stories on tape and have been photographed in their places of work by local photographer Chris Binns. Nursing the Tees Valley provides an oral history by local nurses that will accompany the various nursing artefacts the museum holds.

Here, we tell the stories of some of those involved…

Mercy’s story

Mercy Cabrega always had her sights set on becoming a nurse – from the very moment someone asked her at five-years-old what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Mercy qualified as a nurse at 21-years-old in the Philippines. After a decade serving her home country, she moved to Teesside in 2003 as part of a national recruitment drive led by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

Now 52-years-old, she has worked her way up the ranks at the University Hospital of North Tees over the last 22 years, all while raising her three children. She is now matron of the hospital’s haematology day unit – a nurse-led service caring for patients with blood-related disorders.

Mercy said: “A nurse might work in paediatrics or in surgery, they might have retired from nursing after decades or just be starting their careers, but we all have one thing in common – that patient care is at the centre of everything we do.

“I work in a specialty where once a patient is diagnosed, they have it for life. When you first meet a patient, they don’t know you – they can be scared, they can be frustrated. As soon as you start seeing them on a regular basis, they open up to you and they can see that actually you’re there for them.

“I know all our patients by their first name. That’s something that’s really important to me, making them feel valued. I come to work each day knowing that I will contribute something beautiful to them – from diagnosis until they die.”

Steve’s story

Steve Harrison’s 45-year career at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust began after a chance conversation with his auntie sparked an interest in becoming a mental health nurse.

She had heard about new nursing assistant roles in the NHS and a vacancy working with teenagers. So, at 19 years old, Steve started as a nursing assistant and discovered a lifelong vocation and passion for helping others.

Throughout his career working within children and young people’s mental health, he’s been involved in:

• Pioneering community nursing roles and services
• National government projects
• Collaborative work with universities
• Training the next generation of nursing professionals and family therapists

He took up his current role as a part-time clinical nurse specialist and a qualified family therapist when he semi-retired in 2015. Steve is now in his sixties and says he’s coming to the last chapter of his career.

Steve says about his profession: “It’s hugely challenging and hugely rewarding. Nursing isn’t just about the tasks that you’re trained to do, it’s about the way you engage with the world and the people in it.

“When I look back on my career, I think about relationships. It’s relationships that have helped people move on and make a positive difference in their lives. I think nurses can form relationships in ways that other health professionals might find harder to do. Nurses get alongside people. They don’t tend to sit opposite people.”