UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

SIGMA THETA TAU INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY OF NURSING’S FIRST CHAPTER IN IRELAND

Five years after four nurse leaders attending an INANE conference in 2013 agreed that Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) should have a chapter in that country, Omega Epsilon at-Large Chapter was officially chartered in 2018. The chapter became Sigma’s first in Ireland and its seventh in the European region. In February 2014, six months after Drs Patricia Yoder-Wise, Karren Kowalski, Nicola Cornally, and Elizabeth Weathers first discussed the benefits of establishing a Sigma chapter in Ireland, a steering committee was formed, and the process set in motion. One year later, members of the steering committee were elected to the future chapter’s first board of directors, and the developing honor society, known as the SIA Honor Society of Nursing and Midwifery Ireland (SIA Society). Sia is the name of the ancient Egyptian god of knowledge. The acronym SIA captures the goal of the society, which is to celebrate scholarship, innovation, and achievement in nursing and midwifery. The board members began completing requisite steps for achieving Sigma chapter status. One of those steps - the SIA Society’s first member induction - took place in November 2016. The formation of the Sia Society was supported by Schools of Nursing at University College Cork; Institute of Technology, Tralee; and Waterford Institute of Technology and the Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit Cork/Kerry (NMPDU). Further progress was made when leaders of the new society presented at the Nursing and Midwifery Values in Practice Conference in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2017 and Sigma’s biennial convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, in October of that year.

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