Diane Davies: Nurse who 'secretly' worked 19-hour days needed to pay for her son's education after husband lost his job Diane Davies took on marathon shifts to support her family Claims she had to work such long hours after her husband lost his job Nurse was 'too tired' to properly care for patients, court heard By Kerry Mcdermott and Anna Edwards A NHS nurse who worked 19-hour days with moonlight shifts at a steel plant said she had to work the marathan hours to pay for her son's university education. Diane Davies, 55, is accused of endangering patients lives by her marathon working days for 12 years. But Davies told how she took on the extra shifts as a steelworks nurse after becoming the sole breadwinner for her family. She is accused of breaking NHS rules by working 19-hour days for 12 years, leaving her 'too tired' to properly care for patients. 'Too tired': NHS nurse Diane Davies (pictured yesterday) drove straight from night shifts at a Llanelli steelworks to her job at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, the court heard But she told a jury she did what she had to so to 'survive' and took on the punishing workload with two full-time jobs after her husband Ken lost his employment. She said: 'I did what I had to do to survive. I was putting my son through university at the time so money was very very tight. My husband lost his job so we lost a wage. It was very important for me to put my son through university and things were bad. Davies is accused of putting patients' lives at risk because she was too tired to care for them properly. She worked from 10pm to 7am as an agency nurse at a steelworks, before driving to Swansea's Morriston Hospital for 8.15am to put in a near nine hour shift on the ward. Davies would drive home when her shift ended at 5pm only to start the routine all over again at the Trostre steel plant in Llanelli, West Wales. The nurse told a jury that her role at the steelworks as a 'babysitting' shift and she was able to sleep for 'about six hours' while on the job. She said: 'After I finished at the hospital my husband would cook dinner, I'd watch telly or have a sleep then go to Trostre. 'They employed 600 at the steelworks, it was heavy industry so they had a nurse 24/7 but the nurse on a night shift wasn't really needed.' My role was to baby sit the plant at night. 'I'd do a hand over from the day nurse, clean up, stock up dressing trollies, make notes for the following day's duties and that was my role finished so I'd sleep. 'I couldn't have worked two jobs if I didn't have any sleep, so I slept. I never worked straight through two shifts, I slept at Trostre. If I was disturbed I woke up and dealt with that but that was the nature of the work. 'You can't sit in a chair for eight hours and not fall asleep.' Swansea Crown Court heard how health chiefs were unaware the nurse was holding down two full-time jobs. But Davies claimed she had informed her line manager at the hospital she was working a second full-time job at the steelworks - but he 'had not been concerned'. She said: 'As he'd never placed any priority on it I didn't think it would be an issue with anyone else. I thought I was doing the right thing. Davies told the jury her work at the hospital was managerial not not clinical - from 2003 she was appointed junior sister and later sister. She said she would 'never' be involved in clinical procedures and did not distribute drugs or remove stitches from patients.