UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

International Awards

Professor Helen Whelton, Head of College of Medicine and Health, Dr. Joan McCarthy, Professor Ann Gallagher, and Professor Eileen Savage.

Staff at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC have attained many accolades in recognition of their achievements. Two such staff awards (Dr. Joan McCarthy and Dr. Harry Gijbels) are profiled in this book. Dr. Joan McCarthy was nominated as a visiting Scholar on the Yale-Hastings Centre Programme in Ethics and Health Policy in 2014. This involved a six-week shared visit in April-May 2014 between the Hastings Centre, New York and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioethics at Yale University for the purpose of benchmarking the Irish Ethical Framework for End-of-Life Care (McCarthy et al 2010) with the Hastings Centre Guidelines for Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment and Care Near the End-of-Life (Berlinger et al 2013). In recognition of an outstanding commitment to human rights and exemplifying the essence of nursing’s philosophy of humanity Dr. Harry Gijbels was awarded a Human Rights and Ethics Award by the International Care Ethics (ICE) Observatory, which is located in the University of Surrey, UK on the 14th September 2016 during the Annual International Care Ethics (ICE) Observatory conference hosted at the University of São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. Dr. Gijbels was nominated on the basis of his many innovative initiatives for people using and working in mental health services including the establishment of the Critical Voices Network, Ireland and his involvement in the Sli Eile project in North Cork. Slí Eile, which in English means ‘another way’, seeks to provide another option for individuals with mental health challenges: an option that gives people a better chance of rebuilding their lives and escaping the frightening cycle of repeated breakdowns and repeated hospital admissions.

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