School of Nursing and Midwifery Scholarly Impact Report 2021

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CATHERINE MCAULEY SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, UCC

TRANSLATING EVIDENCE & INNOVATION FOR HEALTH

Successful funding under the College of Medicine and Health (CoMH) Interdisciplinary Seed Award (CiSA) in collaboration with Marymount University Hospital and Hospice TheCiSAawardpromotescollaborativetranslational researchbetween the UCC CoMH and affiliated healthcare aligned organisations. Under this scheme, Dr Mohamad Saab (Lead, SoNM), Professor Josephine Hegarty (SoNM), Dr Fiona Kiely (Marymount), and Dr Mary Jane O’Leary (Marymount) received €10,000 in research funding to explore the communication experiences of patients and carers within six months of referral to specialist palliative care services at Marymount University Hospital and Hospice. This study will run over one year, until the end of December 2022. Data will be collected from patients and carers using audio-recorded semi- structured interviews. Dissemination of results will be in the form of a report, publication(s), conference presentation(s), and discussions with the wider palliative care team at Marymount University Hospital and Hospice. This study will help formulate recommendations to improve patients and carers’ communication experiences during specialist palliative referral and support early access to palliative care services. Lead: Dr Mohamad Saab Team Members: Professor Josephine Hegarty, Dr Fiona Kiely, and Dr Mary Jane O’Leary

mothers, fathers and their children. The context of the research reflects the diverse clinical care settings from hospital wards, out- reach community clinics, primary care centres to people’s own homes. Research areas of expertise include midwifery led care, public health nursing care, transition to motherhood, fatherhood and parenthood, perinatal mental health, parental concerns in relation to child growth and development, parental/infant attachment, nurse/client relationships, working with vulnerable families, social support, the experience of pregnancy after pregnancy loss, maternal parental self- efficacy, postnatal depression, tocophobia, infant feeding including breastfeeding, social support, kangaroo care, preterm parenting, and many others.

Highlights

• Initiatinga conversationabout palliative care referral is difficult and patients and carers often have unmet information needs and misconceptions about palliative care • This research will aid in the development of a communication framework to improve patients and carers’ communication experiences during specialist palliative referral.

Theme 3 – Maternity, Families and Primary Care (MF&PC)

The following stories provide examples of some of the work undertaken as part of this research group in 2021.

School of Nursing & Midwifery staff and students contributing to international community health and well-being

Dr Helen Mulcahy presented, as well as nominating and supporting a BSc Nursing Studies student to present to a group of health care workers in Uganda through Nurture Africa in May 2021. Nurture Africa is a charitable foundation. Prior to the covid-pandemic volunteers would have to collect a certain amount of money for the foundation before they could engage in the volunteer programme. This was not possible over the past 2 years so Nurture Africa had to be inventive and thus established the ‘virtual volunteer’ programme in which the

Aim: The aim of the Maternal, Families and Primary Care research group is to lead and collaborate in developing multidisciplinary research to support women, children, fathers and families throughout the perinatal period from preconception to the early years of a child’s life in diverse social community settings. Impact Statement: Informing policy to lead change from reactive to proactive family healthcare Focus of Research The MF&PC research team are qualified research-experienced nurses, midwives, public health nurses, an epidemiologist, and a statistician committed to improving the bio-psychosocial health of women,

School of Nursing and Midwifery participated. Lead Researcher and Team: Dr Helen Mulcahy and Sr. Nwanneka Judith Uduh

Online Presentations as follows: Mulcahy H. (2021) Educating health care professionals on positioning and attachment to reduce breastfeeding problems in the early postnatal period. Uduh, Nwanneka Judith (2021) Improving Patients’ Experience Through Interpersonal Relationships.