UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

settings in Cork eventually settling for a number of years at the SMA Parish Community Centre in Wilton, a move that was described by the external examiner of the Programme as innovative and radical, reflecting community based approaches in mental health care. The teaching team at that time consisted of Mr. Rick Deady who had been teaching in the School since 1991 and Mr. Niall O’Mahony who had moved back to Ireland having worked as a community mental health nurse in the UK for a number of years and was new to teaching and Ms. Moira O’ Donovan who was also new to teaching but had extensive psychiatric nursing experience in Australia, Many changes were implemented over the next 4 years such as mentorship, a competency-based assessment approach and close working relationships developed with clinical placement coordinators and nurse practice development coordinators. The inaugural Diploma group graduated in 2001. By 2002 the new programme had already moved entirely into the Department of Nursing, UCC to be taught at degree level, at which point the Southern Health Board School of Psychiatric Nursing closed in 2004. Over the 4-years of the BSc programme, undergraduate students on the Psychiatric Nursing (latterly Mental Health Nursing) programme gained extensive experience across a wide range of practice placements within the regional mental health services ably supported by clinical and practice development nursing colleagues. The development in the education of psychiatric nursing in the Cork region could not have taken place without the commitment of the many people including those mentioned above. Others who aided the development included Mr. Pat Madden (Programme Manager, Southern Health Board), Mr. Michael Cottrell and Mr. Ned Kelly, Directors of Psychiatric Nursing CUH), Ms. Angela Reidy (Director of Nursing St. Stephens Hospital) and Ms. Anne Coughlan (Practice Development Coordinator SHB).

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