The President of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) Essene Cassidy has praised ATU Donegal’s Nursing Department for its role in an important discussion event at the Letterkenny campus last week.
Ms Cassidy and ATU President Dr Orla Flynn were among attendees at the NMBI Summer Series discussion on intellectual disability nursing.
The lecture theatre event saw nurses in clinical and academic settings in Donegal discuss the future of intellectual disability nursing. ATU Letterkenny offers a bachelor’s degree programme in ID nursing.
Ballyshannon-born John Meehan, who is now Assistant National Director and Head of the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) was the guest speaker at the event. Mr Meehan presented an overview of the mental health strategies from 2005-2022 and focused on Connecting for Life and Sharing the Vision. He praised former Education Minister Joe McHugh for introducing Wellness as a subject in secondary schools.
One of the highlights of the evening was the discussion led by Michelle Murray RPN, Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and self-harm nurse at Letterkenny University Hospital emergency department. She assists patients and families and also provides training for all staff in the department on the issue of self-harm.
Ms Cassidy described the event as ‘extremely powerful’ and praised the Head of the nursing department Dr Louise McBride in her role in co-hosting the Summer Series event.