UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Although preventative nursing services were available since 1915, mandated by the Notification of Births (Extensions) Act 1915, the term Public Health Nurse in Ireland was first used in 1924 with the introduction of the school health service. Despite this long history it was not until 1960 that a separate register for public health nurses was established by the regulatory body, An Bord Altranais (ABA) (now called the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) (INMO 2013). This move heralded national involvement by ABA in public health nursing education in 1968. Prior to this a course of 8 weeks in length was available for nurses with less than 3 years of district or Jubilee nursing experience (Prendergast & Sheridan, 2012), but up to six months for less community experienced nurses (INMO 2013). Thus, Public Health Nursing has been a registrable qualification since the 1960s. Educational preparation was carried out directly by An Bord Altranais from the 1960s until 1986. In the 1980s, the PHN course moved to a Higher Education Intuition (HEI) setting, specifically University College Dublin (UCD) where the first Diploma in Public Health Nursing was awarded in 1987 (Armstrong, 2000). Akeypublication relevant toPublicHealthNursing and thedevelopments in UCC was A Service Without Walls, commissioned in 1994 (Institute of Public Administration 1994). This report reflected the changing healthcare landscape in Ireland and the need for public health nursing not to seen in isolation. Public health nursing education commenced in University College Cork (UCC) at this time of change in 1994. Other Reports influencing in the 1990s and 2000s including the Commission on Nursing (1998) which established funding for research and led to the Health Research Board (HRB) grants to staff in the fledgling School of Nursing and Midwifery. Indeed, one of the Commissions Reports (Leahy-Warren 1998) examined specifically the international perspective on nursing in the community. Subsequent to this was the Nursing and Midwifery in the Community NAMIC Report (Leahy-Warren and McCarthy (2001) and more recently Leahy-Warren et al (2016) report which sought to influence the direction of nursing in the community. However, no new framework has been embraced because of consultation and empirical review.

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