Meet Nurse Duggan who believes laughter is the best medicine

A mischievous joker with a heart of gold, Katie Duggan brings a lot of laughter to a lot of people.

Living in Macroom for the past 30 plus years, the Cork woman, originally from Kilmichael, works as a nurse and regularly goes above and beyond to bring joy to her patients.

"Currently on sick leave with a cancer diagnosis, Katie is staying upbeat and positive awaiting a second surgery to ensure she can remain healthy for her years ahead.

“My consultant Dr John Coulter and Nurse Eileen Kennedy the gynecology Nurse Specialist have been tremendously supportive of me.” 

At 57, Katie has a plethora of interesting quirks and compelling hilarious stories to share about her past years, one involving dressing up as a nun to cheer up a patient on her ward and scaring the bejaysus out of a work colleague by jumping out of a cupboard.

“One Halloween I dressed up as a nun and went to visit a patient, they had family in with them and when I asked them to join me in prayer, the patient recognised me and started laughing, it was very funny. Before I left I hid in a cupboard and when a nurse was passing I jumped out with a Halloween mask on and dressed as a nun and she screamed so much I got a fright myself!” 

One of Katie’s hobbies is singing on a social singing app called 'Smule'.

“I got into it after I had trouble with my lungs. The blood wasn’t clotting correctly and I was having trouble breathing. I was in hospital for a week.” Katie said the singing helps exercise her lungs.

“It makes a huge difference, but it's also good fun, you can sing alone or break up a song and sing it with others.” 

Katie said her two dogs Charlie and Frank enjoy her singing.

“One day I was belting out Whitney Houston and suddenly Frank started howling too!” 

Both Charlie and Frank are rescue dogs. Charlie is a big Alsatian mixed breed who is partly a fluffy sheepdog and Frank is a Rottweiler.

“They are outdoor dogs, but they are fenced in. They are good company.” 

Katie said she was very satisfied with her lifestyle and enjoyed her life to the fullest.

“I'm very happy, I’m very satisfied. I have a much greater appreciation for things than when I was younger and my sense of humour has developed over the years. I feel very lucky to be living in Ireland and I appreciate how much nursing has taught me, I've met some lovely people, older people can be very wise, I notice that."

Katie said she often goes above and beyond for her patients.

“When people are nice I want to help them, you can’t do enough for them.” 

The Cork nurse said as a younger woman she was very shy and it was only in her later years she became comfortable chatting and socialising with people outside of her comfort zone.

“In my 20s/30s I would have been mortified to go outside my bubble, nursing made me more socialable.” Nursing for the past 36 years, Katie said she thought the profession should have a higher level of recognition.

“Long ago, it was considered a vocation and it was perceived differently, now, nurses are highly skilled, they preempt so many emergency situations, they develop an intuition of how to respond. They have so much going on. It is not recognised as much as it should be.” 

If Katie was to have any regrets it would be not getting into amateur drama in her younger years.

“I have a great passion for writing and the arts, drama and acting, I write a little bit, just poetry and short stories, I have a creative side. I also make short videos for friends, I take on a character called ‘Nurse Fossil’ and she’s a bit of a personality.” 

Katie said she uses the character Nurse Fossil to make short videos for people and a number have said the videos were a great help during lockdown and the pandemic.

One of the things Katie has learned over the years is to learn to say no.

“I used to be a real people pleaser, I like making people happy, but you can’t do it all and as a nurse you have to have boundaries.”