UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

environment for healthcare staff. Interventions fall into two major types: 1) using psychology approaches such as mindfulness to improve personal resilience and coping skills through awareness and regulation of emotional, cognitive, and physiological activity for individual health professionals; and 2) redesigning the organizations within which health professionals practice to reduce modifiable sources of stress and burnout, and to reinforce workers’ perceptions of wellbeing including a strong sense of personal accomplishment, being valued, and having autonomy and control over the conditions of their work.

RESEARCHER SPOTLIGHTS

Staff in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in the 21 st Century are developing research evidence impacting on patient care, health policy and healthcare education. Building on the ever-growing research success of the School, two new Professors were appointed in 2013 and 2017.

In2013, JonathanDrennan, whopreviouslyworkedat the University of Southampton was appointed as Professor of Nursing and Health Services Research and is leading a major Health Research Board funded programme of research on safe nurse staffing in medical and surgical, emergency and community settings in Ireland. Corina Naughton, who was previously employed at King’s College London, was appointed as the Professor of Clinical Nursing in Older Persons’ Healthcare in 2017. This is the first clinical professor post appointed in the School and is a joint initiative between the Health Service Executive and South/South West Hospital Group/ Office of the Nursing and Midwifery Services Director (ONMSD). Professor Naughton’s research is involved in optimising care in acute hospitals for older adults living with frailty and dementia.

Research is a team effort and there is an ever increasing number of researchers (research assistants, post doctorate researchers) within School and we are in the better of having exposure to such a diverse range of people and research topic areas. More staff in the school are also linking their research with the themes identified.

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