UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

As the programme is registrable with the Nursing Midwifery Board Ireland (NMBI) there is a requirement for the Programme coordinator to be a Registered Nurse Teacher (RNT) and/or a RPHN. Over time co-ordinators have included Dr. Geraldine McCarthy, Dr. Sinéad Hanafin, Dr. Patricia Leahy-Warren, Dr. Helen Mulcahy, Dr. Geraldine Harnett-Collins, Patricia O’Dwyer and Lloyd Philpott. In the beginning, the programme for student PHNs was 17 units in length but in line with UCC programme modularisation developments the curriculum was substantially upgraded in 2008. Since that time, the programme has been 60 credits at level 9 with 18 weeks

Dr. Helen Mulcahy (PHN programme coordinator) and Ms. Patricia O’Dwyer (visiting lecturer) pictured with a group of Public Health Nursing Students outside Brookfield (2016-2017)

of clinical placement. Thus, it is heavily reliant on the support of community clinical partners to provide both clinical placement and preceptor public health nurses, to achieve the development of safe and effective graduates on completion of the programme. PHNs in Ireland are unique among community health care providers in offering an area-based service with a remit to encompass families, communities and population groups under the philosophy of primary health care and health promotion. PHNs in Ireland engage in a broad range of primary health care activities to enable individuals, communities and populations to increase control over and improve their health. Thus, at everyday clinical practice level, public health nurses contribute to person-centred and holistic care of the population in their designated geographical area. As a registrable programme with NMBI the PGDPHN has always been required for practice. The programme primarily educates for practice, although this was less explicit in the early days as graduates could choose their own career trajectory on qualification. Sponsorship was not universally available and when successfully achieved, usually covered course fees only. Nevertheless, students came from most counties in Ireland to study public health nursing in UCC. Although most graduates went on to successful PHN practice, many used the qualification to develop their careers in other spheres of practice such as senior health service management, private enterprise and academia. These career choices became somewhat constrained as national efforts evolved to meet the needs of certain areas to attract Public Health Nurses. Since 2006, a centralised process has been in place for the sponsorship and recruitment of public health nurses. In line with Department of Health Circular 04/2005 each sponsored PHN student was linked to an anticipated vacancy in a named Local Health Office area and on successful completion of the programme was appointed to a permanent post. Accordingly, the number of sponsored students was directly linked to service need. The scheme has not been entirely successful in meeting service need in the Dublin areas insofar as a significant number of vacancies have continued to remain unfilled. In 2008 the recruitment and sponsorship of

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