UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Advanced Practice in Nursing Case Studies The MSc in Nursing (Advanced Practice Nursing) available at the School of Nursing and Midwifery is designed to prepare nurses to practice at a higher level of capability; be independent, autonomous, and expert practitioners; and above all to be person- centred. This section profiles the role of two Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) who undertook their study at UCC

LOUISE MURPHY (RANP RHEUMATOLOGY, CORK UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL)

The rheumatology Registered Advanced Nurse Practitioner (RANP) service that Louise provides at Cork University Hospital (CUH) is a high quality advanced nursing care service to patients with chronic disease. The overarching aim of Louise’s service is to improve patients’ quality of life through the delivery of patient centred compassionate care. Ultimately, Louise ensures that this complex and vulnerable group of patients receive timely care from the right person, in the right place. A gap in care was evident for patients with acute presentations of joint symptoms to the Emergency Department (ED). Patients with chronic rheumatology conditions were referred to the (ED) with possible septic arthritis by their GP and, while the majority of patients did not have sepsis, they received no specialist rheumatology input. In response, Louise developed a novel direct referral pathway to the RANP for patients presenting with acute presentations of flaring disease. Louise now reviews and manages this cohort of patients at the point of contact in the ED resulting in their timely discharge.

Louise Murphy speaking at ministerial launch of the ANP strategy, 2019

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