More years ago than I care to remember, I was filling out my CAO application form and had put down my four choices – medicine in each of the four universities that offered the course at that time. It was in the era before computerisation and online applications. This was a simple paper form. It took me all of five minutes.

The teacher who was in charge of career guidance saw that I had finished long before everyone else and picked up my form. She was quite horrified that I had left the remaining six lines blank, and said: “But Noreen, what if you don’t get medicine?” I looked at her as if the answer was perfectly obvious and told her that I would repeat, of course.

She was still insistent that I fill in the remainder of the form with other potential choices, and I was equally insistent that I would not. I had decided at about the age of three that I was going to be a doctor and never once wavered on that decision.

I am well aware that not many people have the luxury of knowing from early on what they want to do for a living, and many more who think they do change as they go through life, but I was one of the few who was utterly convinced that there were no other career options for me from a very early age.

As it happened, I missed out on medicine by just half a point that year, but repeated the Leaving Certificate and was successful the following year. One of the suggestions my career guidance teacher had was that I apply for nursing as well, and I considered it for about a minute and a half but no longer.

Thankfully, I already knew that I would make a terrible nurse. In a realisation that was based on pure instinct, I already knew it was not a career for me. I remember meeting one of the best nurses I ever came across when I was an intern several years later. To us interns, fresh out of college and almost utterly useless on the wards, the nurses were amazing and got us out of many a potential pickle in the early days.

One nurse in particular stood out for me as the epitome of what a nurse should be; she was the kindest, most caring person and treated every single patient with the utmost respect and the deepest care. She knew every little detail about her patients and they all loved her. I have met many more over the years and continue to be in awe of how incredible they are, how demanding their job can be and how well they do it, despite the increasingly difficult circumstances in this country.

Both as a patient on several occasions and as a colleague, I have experienced first hand how essential our nurses are, and fail to understand how our government can continue to watch these talented, highly trained professionals leave our country because working conditions are simply inadequate.

During the recent industrial action, I found it so sad to see our Irish nurses all over the globe offering their support to their colleagues here. Yes, many may wish to travel and nursing is a wonderful qualification to facilitate that, but many other nurses were most clear on the fact that they would far prefer to be working in Ireland and would come home in the morning if only the conditions were acceptable here; a similar situation that pertains to many medical professionals who have moved away for the same reasons.

What a terrible indictment of those in power it is that so many highly trained and valuable professionals are leaving their native shores, not through choice but through necessity, because the conditions are just not adequate.

With four teens of my own now, career choices are often the topic of discussion. None of them have expressed any interest so far in a career in any of the health professions and I am secretly thankful. I would of course support them completely if they did choose a career in healthcare, in the same way I was supported, but although it seems sad to say it, I am thankful that their interests point, at the moment, in other directions.

Perhaps it means they will get to stay in Ireland then, if that’s what they choose. It is so sad to think that career options which would have been so celebrated not so long ago are now a source of hesitancy and disillusionment for so many. If those in power continue to ignore and mistreat those in the caring professions, will there be anyone left to care for others in the future?