Growing up in a family of nurses, Anna Gunning was encouraged to follow in their footsteps from a young age. Due to a lack of training places in Ireland at the time however, it was a difficult field to get into.
She reflects, “To be considered for a spot at one of the hospitals you had to go through a rigorous interview process and complete exams and essays – because of this a lot of people from Ireland went to the UK for their training instead.” Gunning was thrilled that she did manage to pass this challenging entry process though, and went on to complete her training at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, graduating in 1994.
She says, “It was very strict there because it was run by nuns. Everything had to be perfect – even down to what colour tights we wore. Although, we were given a lot of responsibility from the outset – they would leave us alone to watch over the…
