UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Nadia Curran (Administrator). Sean McCloskey (Allocations Officer) and Maureen O’Shea (Assistant Allocations Officer)

The Allocations Office coordinates all clinical placements and the maintenance of placement audit records and is thus critical to the functioning of undergraduate nursing and midwifery programmes. The Allocations Office is currently responsible for organising and managing approximately 4,500 clinical placements per annum. In 2016 the mandated placements were revised by the NMBI with a particular focus on including additional community and care of the older person placements. Each clinical area has an identified Link Lecturer who acts as the key contact point for students, preceptors, clinical placement coordinators for that placement area. Link lecturing roles involve student and preceptor support particularly where a student has an identified learning concern and facilitation of cyclical audits as per NMBI requirements. It is this close working relationships between academic and clinical colleagues that help facilitate student placements and associated learning. Student learning in the clinical environment is a critical component of nursing and midwifery programmes. Optimisation of learning environments involves the valuable contribution and oversight of many different staff including: preceptors, clinical placement coordinators, allocation liaison officers, practice development coordinators, clinical nurse/midwife managers, and directors of nursing/midwifery. Indeed all health care staff have an important role in optimising the student’s experience of the health care environment.

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