UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

In October 2002 undergraduate nursing education was transferred to UCC and directly funded by DoH&C. In addition, 27million Euros was allocated for the building of a School of Nursing, special funding of 3million for equipment and €50,000 for 4 years for library stock with a requirement to invoice directly the DOHC. Initially, a member of staff from the Finance Office was allocated to help clarify costs and expenditure but difficulties continued and considerable work in identifying, clarifying and tracking income and expenditure still had to be done by the Head of School and Department Manager. In 2003 it was evident to all concerned that additional resources were necessary. A proposal was made by the Head of School to appoint an accountant to the School. In 2003 an Accounting Technician was appointed on a full-time contract basis. Academic Administration Administration responsibilities within the School include responsibilities as Director of the BSc Programme, Branch Leaders (General, Mental Handicap, Psychiatric Nursing and Integrated Childrens/General), Co-ordinators of programmes, Chairs of Standing Committees and other School Committees (PR, Library, International etc). Administrative responsibilities are also held by Year Co-ordinators for the BSc programme and Module Leaders for all Modules. It is part of the criteria for appointment as an academic staff member to undertake an administrative role. The responsibilities therefore are allocated by the Head of School after consultation with individual staff members and based on experience. In many instances, lecturers have taken a co-ordinator role subsequent to developing a programme i.e. a staffmember who developed the Higher Diploma in Critical Care subsequently became co-ordinator of the programme. In the case of the BSc degree programme the Head of School had no option (due to the number of new staff) but to request the only member of staff holding a Senior Lectureship (the only Senior appointment at that time) to take the leadership role. In some programmes the lead role of Co-ordinator of programme has rotated (for example in the MSc programme or in the Access to the BSc programme for Registered Nurses). It is more difficult to rotate leadership when offering clinical focused programmes, which are offered in very close collaboration with diverse health service providers.

70