HSE pay tribute to Carlow Psychiatric Nursing graduates graduates from SETU

Four years of study in the South East Technological University (SETU), featuring 80 weeks of clinical placements in HSE/South East Community Healthcare Mental Health services, was marked in a ceremony in Waterford for the Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford graduates of SETU’s B.Sc. (Honours) in Psychiatric Nursing.

Concluding their fourth year of the course and a 36 week continuous internship with HSE/South East Community Healthcare (SECH), the students were presented with their qualifications at an occasion hosted in the Tower Hotel.

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Having begun in September 2020 and on completion of their training in the HSE in the coming weeks, the 38 participants will register with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland as Psychiatric Nurses.

The ceremony also featured a “Blessing of the Hands” by SETU chaplain Fr. David Keating. The blessing of the hands is a universal healthcare tradition, believed to have been started by Florence Nightingale in the 1800s and is a symbolic gesture to remind nurses their hands should deliver compassionate care at all times.

Speaking at the ceremony and in making presentations to the students, Emer O Donnell, Clinical Placement Coordinator/Assistant Director of Nursing HSE/South East Community Healthcare said:

“This group of graduates commenced their training in 2020 at an unprecedented time in the Irish health services. They have contributed enormously to delivering the highest possible standards of care in mental health services throughout counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford in that time. They have both our sincere appreciation and admiration for their commitment.”

“Psychiatric/Mental Health nursing is a specialist field within the health care profession. It involves an interpersonal, caring process which acknowledges the uniqueness of each person. The Psychiatric Nurse is concerned with the promotion of mental health, the prevention of mental illness and the provision of care to those with mental health problems.”

HSE/SECH Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford Mental Health Services work closely with our SETU colleagues in facilitating clinical placements across a diverse range of mental health services, including two admission units, psychiatry of later life units, rehabilitation and recovery areas. Student nurses also complete placements in Home based treatment teams, Community mental health teams, day centres, several specialist nursing areas such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health teams, Liaison services, Substance Misuse services, the Recovery College and other community supports and services based in Community Mental Health Settings across the region.

Dr. Sara Kennedy, Head of Department in the School of Nursing, SETU said:

“This diverse training afforded in the South East to graduates in Psychiatric Nursing is a solid foundation to developing professionally and making a lasting contribution to the delivery of quality, safe and effective mental health care locally, nationally and internationally.”

The ceremony in the Tower Hotel was also attended by the HSE/SECH’s Nurse Practice Development Co-ordinator Irene Ryan and the respective Clinical Placement Co-ordinators, Helen Heffernan (Carlow), Claire Fitzgerald (Kilkenny), Emer O’ Donnell (South Tipperary), Paul Phelan (Waterford), Marilyn Vereker (Wexford) and Emma Byrne (Acute Mental Health Inpatient Units Kilkenny and Waterford).