UCC Nursing & Midwifery Scholarly Impact Report 2022

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CATHERINE MCAULEY SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, UCC

TRANSLATING EVIDENCE & INNOVATION FOR HEALTH

Inclusion of Adolescents in their Care Management of Epilepsy within the Community

Building Interdisciplinary Research Capacity across Disciplines in the Maternity, Families and Primary Care (MF&PC) Research Cluster Ms Niamh Ryan was awarded a full time Scholarship to pursue her PhD in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Niamh is a registered General Nurse, registered Public Health Nurse and registered Nurse tutor, and has been working in primary care since 2007. Niamh has a passion in assisting families and children achieve their full potential for health and wellbeing via healthy development and healthy behaviours. She completed her Masters in Maternal and Child health in WIT in 2015 with particular focus on prevention of child obesity in primary care. This primary research identified numerous barriers to interventions with child obesity which inspired Niamh to continue her work in the area. Considering the shift to preventative, proactive care Niamh wishes to focus her PhD topic on the very origins of child obesity with specific focus to perinatal factors that impact on the mother- infant dyad in the development of obesity, to inform preventative care in the area. Supervisors: Professor Patricia Leahy-Warren, Dr Helen Mulcahy, Dr Lloyd Philpott, Dr Siobhain O’Mahony (Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience)

Highlights: • Niamh says: “I am very grateful to receive this scholarship, it provides me with the opportunity to carry out research in child and maternal health which is at the very root of health and wellbeing. I am both nervous and excited to begin this journey however I am confident that, with the assistance of my very experienced supervisors Prof Patricia Leahy, Dr. Helen Mulcahy, Dr Lloyd Philpott and Dr Siobhain O’Mahony, I can advance knowledge in my topic ‘Exploring the influences of perinatal maternal health on the microbiome, breastmilk and breastfeeding and their relationship to childhood obesity’ to inform preventative care in the future.

Myname isAnnCummins, I amaPHDscholarship student in the School of Nursing & Midwifery (SONM), University College Cork (UCC). I work as a Director of the Centre of Nurse Education, Mercy University Hospital, Cork. I qualifiedwith a BSc degree in Nursing from UCC. I subsequently completed an MSc In Nursing in University College Dublin (UCD). I also hold a Master of Arts in Teaching in Learning in Higher Education (MATLHE) from UCC. I am a Registered General Nurse (RGN) and Registered Children’s’ Nurse (RCN). I have over 10 years’ experience caring for sick children and their families, both in Cork and London. I have previously worked as a Lecturer Practitioner and Nurse Lecturer at the SONM, UCC.

Highlights: • I feel very fortunate to have received a funded scholarship to enable me to conduct research in an area that I am very passionate about. • I am excited to commence my PhD journey and to be engaged in research at this level, while continuing to work in nurse education. It is a wonderful opportunity. enhance their health outcomes. Lead and Team Members: Dr Helen Mulcahy, Professor Patricia Leahy-Warren and Dr Margaret Curtin In October 2022, I was awarded a School of Nursing & Midwifery scholarship with the Maternity, Families and Primary Care Research Group to undertake a PhD. The aim of my PhD is to establish the feasibility of an ehealth nurse led intervention to provide education and information to young people with epilepsy and their parents, to improve their knowledge about epilepsy to