Margrét Andersdóttir is the assistant director of Móberg, the nursing home of HSU in Selfoss. The staff at Móberg is 60 and their job is to provide first-class care to their clients, create a good home and environment for them, shorten their hours, and provide personalized service. Móberg employs around 90 people of all ages. Our interviewee was born at Landspítali at Hringbraut on December 1, 1989, and after growing up in the capital area for a decade, she moved east to Fáskrúðsfjörður where she worked as a fisherman and fish processor as a teenager. She later studied nursing in Akureyri and after that soon settled in the South. Margrét is a bookworm who enjoys fitness and weightlifting. If she weren’t a nurse, she might be a biochemist an electrician… or working as a fish processor.

THE EDUCATIONAL PATH
"My educational path was unusually varied. I first attended the Arnarborg kindergarten in Breiðholt, then spent one winter at Breiðholtsskóli, and then went to Flataskóli in Garðabær. At the turn of the century, my family and I moved east to Fáskrúðsfjörður and I completed my primary school education at Fáskrúðsfjörður Primary School. From there, the path was to the Egilsstaðir High School where I completed my matriculation examination. I studied nursing at the University of Akureyri and have an additional diploma in public administration from the University of Iceland."

PREVIOUS WORK?
"I spent a lot of time in the countryside with my grandmother and uncle when I was a child. Later I got to sail a few times with my uncle on a small fishing boat and those are probably my first steps in some kind of work. I worked one summer in youth work when I was 13, but the summers after that I worked in Loðnuvinnslan in Fáskrúðsfjörður. I always like to think back to that time. My friends and I always calculated our salary by how many Diesel jeans we could buy."

FIRST STEPS IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR
"I started working as a caregiver at the Uppsalir nursing home in Fáskrúðsfjörður at the age of 16, under the guidance of my mother, who is a wonderful, great, and smart paramedic. It was a precious time to work with her, she taught me so much and is a great influence on me professionally. I moved to Reykjavík in 2010 and soon started working in the care of Hrafnista in Reykjavík. In the summer of 2013, however, I just needed a change and worked for one summer in the aluminum workshop in Alcoa Fjarðarál. When I started nursing, I worked as a nursing student at Hrafnista in Reykjavík, but then went from there to the pulmonary department at Landspítali."

MOVING TO SELFOSS
"The summer I graduated from nursing, I wanted to expand my knowledge base and change things up a bit, so I moved to Selfoss with my then-boyfriend and current husband and was on a summer shift at the emergency room and the medical department in Selfoss. We had to move back to Reykjavík while my husband was finishing his studies, so I went back to the pulmonary department."

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER REUNITED
"It's a bit funny to tell you about it, but my mom also started working in the pulmonary department then, so we were reunited for a while. I then moved back east of the mountains after my husband finished his studies in 2019 and this time to Stokkseyri."

MOVING CLOSE TO HOME
"After two adventurous winters of driving across Hellisheiði or through Þrengslin, I decided to find a job closer to home. In the spring of 2022, I started working at Foss- and Ljósheimar, the geriatric departments of HSU in Selfoss. I tried as best I could to participate in the opening at Móberg, but then went on maternity leave from the end of November 2022 to the end of March 2023. When I returned from maternity leave, I moved to Móberg entirely."

WHAT ABOUT GERIATRIC NURSING?
"When it comes to working with aging, this is an extremely diverse group of people, with a variety of issues, problems, and illnesses. These people have lived colorful lives and each one's story is so special. It's so hard to put it into words, but it's just so diverse, wonderful, challenging but also rewarding and fun. No two days are the same, I learn something every day!"

ASSISTANT HEAD OF DEPARTMENT’S JOB
"My job is very diverse and fun. As an assistant head of the department, I am either in the office or on the floor, working as a nurse. The service to our patients and their families is at the forefront for us. It involves good interdisciplinary work between nurses, doctors, paramedics, and physiotherapists. We must have an overview of the health, treatment, and well-being of the patient. Make sure the quality of our service by following quality indicators. Ensure good communication and information flow between us, the patients, and their relatives, organize family meetings, and other such things. Have an overview of the staffing in the departments, and the well-being of the staff and ensure a good flow of information to them. Then there are various other things related to human resources, such as Workhour, shift reports, daily plans, and other things. This is just a fraction of what comes with the job in the office. When I take shifts on the floor, it's a very normal nursing job, care and attention, conversations with family members and relatives, clinical work, vital signs measurements, various assessments, an overview of medication administration, and so on."

BEST THING ABOUT THE WORKPLACE?
"How diverse and fun it is. No two days are the same. Móberg is a brand-new nursing home with all kinds of challenges. Many things have come together well for us, but there are also many things that we are trying to do better. It is so fun and valuable to sow ideas, put work and ambition into the work, and see it become a reality. Our workforce is very multicultural. We are all kinds, with different backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge. That makes us a strong whole."

FAMILY STATUS?
"My husband's name is Ingþór Zóphoníasson. He is a certified meat processing specialist but works at Icelandic Glacial Water. We have two children, Anders Orri, who is four years old, and Indiana, who is two years old.

LIFE OUTSIDE WORK
"Life after work is great fun. Family life certainly takes up a lot of my time, but I also try to do some form of exercise a few times a week. Preferably weightlifting. I can't stress enough how important it is to be healthy in mind and body, especially in this job. I also really enjoy baking and eating good food. Of course, there has to be a balance in all of this! I enjoy reading and listening to books. I have a stack of seven books on my bedside table that could go faster, but this is all a work in progress. I also like watching shows and movies!"

BUT WHY A NURSE?
"I just always wanted to be a nurse! As I got older, I felt more and more that I wanted to work with people, but still work independently. I wanted to have knowledge and be able to gain more knowledge, but at the same time do a variety of work. And it all seems to be coming together. I found in my work as a caregiver that when professionals took the time to teach me more specialized work, it was something I wanted to do and gain more skills in. I also think it's a huge advantage that there is a lot of job security in being a nurse."

ONE FINALLY... IF NOT A NURSE, WHAT THEN?
"It would be something related to numbers and math. But I also find biochemistry very exciting and maybe I would just be an electrician. "Some days I want to go back to the fish processing plan, listen to a fun audiobook and fillet fish -- and calculate my salary in jeans, but I put that aside for nostalgia's sake."