'I'm full of energy', says octogenarian nurse

An 80-year-old nurse who is still working shifts in an emergency department says the secret to her longevity is choosing to be positive.

Iva Hills been caring for patients in Boston, Lincolnshire, for 55 years and currently works at Pilgrim Hospital - and she has no plans to stop.

Her colleagues say she is an inspiration and described her as a caring, compassionate role model.

Hills said: "I'm very lucky to be healthy. Enjoy life and be very positive - that's my secret. I feel fit, I feel healthy, I'm full of energy."

Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, she added: "I like it. You're helping people and that's the reward you get.

"It's a job - you get good days, bad days, you get people who agree with you, disagree... but you take the best, and you just be positive."

Hills was still working a couple of 12-hour shifts a week until last year, but said she has now reduced her shifts to six-and-a-half hours.

United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said Hills completed her diploma in nursing in Prague in 1963, but had to retrain after she moved to England in 1970.

During her career she worked on many different wards and was a ward sister and a matron for 10 years before she officially retired in 2010.

Hills continued to work additional shifts because she was not ready to stop.

She said there had been "massive" changes in nursing over the last 55 years.

"In mobilisation, in mental health as well, because patients are depressed and so if you're happy and lift the spirit, they think positively, and they've got the will to get better, and to go home".

She said there were more patients to look after now, with more illnesses and many different complex diagnoses to deal with.

The trust said colleagues described Hills as "caring, compassionate, a role model, an inspiration, an educator and, above all, the nurse we would all like to be caring for our loved ones".

Hills said she eats good food, exercises and has lots of hobbies, and will continue to work for as long as she feels able to do the job.

"I'm carrying on for as long as I can, as long as I'm allowed," she said.

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