UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Practitioners (ANP) be created throughout the health service. Responsibilities have expanded into nurse prescribing which has been very advantageous. Thus, specialist post graduate programmes have been developed and are required for those aspiring to hold senior posts or as CNS or ANP. Nurses and midwives who advance in post in the health service now hold pertinent post graduate qualifications and many have achieved Master’s Degree level education. Over time the postgraduate programme offerings have evolved in response to external examiners comments, student feedback, refinement of the NMBI Programme Standards and Requirements, HSE programme tenders, policy developments and based upon advancements in healthcare. This has ensured that the programmes on offer are responsive and meet health and social care service requirements. Such changes are managed by the postgraduate programme team. Successive directors of postgraduate education (Professor Eileen Savage, Dr. Alice Coffey, Dr. Elaine Lehane) and programme coordinators have overseen such developments ably supported by programme lecturers, and professional support staff and in close collaboration with the Nursing and Midwifery Planning Development Unit and clinical partners. Graduate programmes which also ensure professional registration are firstly described. These are followed by a number of other programmes including continuing professional development modules taught in the School. (Appendix H) The establishment of a Nursing & Midwifery Planning & Development Unit in each health board region was one of 200 recommendations of The Commission on Nursing – A Blueprint for the Future (1998). The consultation process with the professions undertaken in 1997 identified a concern that nurses and midwives did not have an effective input in planning or in policy and strategy development. It was also suggested that there was a need to ensure the more effective development and planning of Nursing and Midwifery Services at health board level. Within this context, the Commission recommended the establishment of a Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit in each health board. The Unit in the Southern Health Board Region was established in July 2001 (with Ms. Catherine Killilea appointed as Director) with a strategic planning and policy development role for Nursing and Midwifery in the Southern Health Board area. The overall aim of the Unit as outlined in the Commission on Nursing (1998) was to strategically plan and develop a quality driven nursing and midwifery service to meet evolving health service needs in the region. Individual service providers identify and define the quality of the service delivered and the function of the Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit is to support the development, implementation and sustaining of best practice within services. The Nursing & Midwifery Planning & Development Unit (Cork and Kerry) Carmel Buckley

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