ALISON COLLINS
Tissue Viability Nurse - Belfast City Hospital
Title of Work:
After the Nightingale
In my piece of art ‘After the Nightingale’, hospital and key worker images are pale grey, depicting previous times, past shadows. The Spring flowers by contrast are painted in vivid, strong colours, portraying hope for a brighter future.
Medium: Background, scanned photographs (artist’s x 2 and Belfast Telegraph x 3). Foreground, ink-pencils on paper.
I am a Tissue Viability Nurse (TVN) and have been in this post for just over 20 years. I am based in the Belfast City Hospital. My role changed in 2020 because the Belfast City Hospital became the Nightingale Hospital. As a TVN I was involved in caring for patients with COVID-19 (or who were recovering from COVID-19) in the intensive care and step down wards. My father was very ill with COVID-19 in March 2020 and was nursed in the Mater and Belfast City Hospitals. Thankfully he made some recovery and came home to his family. On a personal level, I felt that caring for patients in the Nightingale Hospital gave me an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who looked after for my father when he was in hospital. Submitting work to the Hidden Talents Exhibition will hopefully help Artists to work through their experience of 2020. Furthermore, sharing Art works through the Exhibition may help others to reflect on their own professional and personal experiences of the past year.
Alison Collins
