Message from the Head of the School of  Nursing and Midwifery

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the School of Nursing and Midwifery, National University of Ireland.  This School has always been at the forefront of nursing and midwifery education in Ireland.  Established in 1993, it was the first Irish university to introduce the pre-registration diploma programme for nursing students. Since then the number of staff and range of programmes have developed and flourished.  There are now thirty-six academic staff, seven administrative staff and approximately 700 students.  The School is located in Áras Moyola, a new purpose-built building with state-of-the-art lecture theatres, laboratory facilities and learning equipment. 

Purpose and Mission of the School of Nursing and Midwifery

The overarching purpose of the School is to develop and promote appropriate education and research in the fields of nursing and midwifery. Indeed, the School has a strong history of producing excellent practitioners and in the past three consecutive years our students have being awarded the prestigious annual national award, the Dr. H.H. Stewart Scholarships in School of Nursing and Midwifery.

The mission statement of the School focuses on the following areas: 

• To educate students who are knowledgeable, analytical, caring, client-centred practitioners who have the capacity to engage in life-long learning and contribute to the development of health care
• To advance knowledge through quality research and scholarship that is of international standing
• To contribute to the development of the health care system, through the design and delivery of quality, dynamic educational programmes
• To forge links and partnerships with appropriate bodies to ensure the relevance, responsiveness and quality of educational programmes and research
  

Educational Programmes

Programme development at undergraduate ( general School of Nursing and Midwifery, psychiatric School of Nursing and Midwifery, midwifery) and postgraduate levels is a major feature of the School’s activities. Together with the Health Service Executive (West) and the Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit (NMPDU) in Galway, the School has developed clinically-focused programmes in response to service needs. 

The School’s aim is to accommodate the hectic schedules and work demands of nurses and midwives and provide greater access to continuing education for nurses. It therefore introduced Blended Learning. This is an innovative teaching strategy that involves a combination of face-to-face and online teaching/learning by allowing students to complete postgraduate programmes and modules at their individual pace.  Students can also take stand alone modules and accumulate credits over time. Nurses and midwives have on-line access to course details and content at all times and participate through lectures and tutorials, discussion boards, on-line collaboration, e-mail and telephone.

Research

A strong and dynamic research ethos and culture exist in the School which contributes to the culture of evidence-based nursing and midwifery practice currently evolving in Ireland. Research undertaken by the School has not only academic outcomes but also a significant and on-going impact on nursing and midwifery practice. An aspiring centre of excellence, the School’s targeted areas of research include: older people, living well with chronic diseases, maternity care and women’s health, teaching and learning and community and public health.  The School has attracted over €3 million in research funding in the last 2 years and is currently conducting both of the first nursing and midwifery research priority Health Research Board grants, the PRINCE and ADCAR study. There is also a strong commitment to the development of research links with academics from other disciplines within NUI Galway and with external national and international partners, with health service providers and related agencies and with nursing and patient representative organisations.  In 2006 the School enrolled its first PhD students and there are now 14 such students registered. 

Conferences

The School has a reputation for being innovative, vibrant and dynamic and in April 2007 held its first biannual international conference entitled Building and Promoting Excellence in Practice.  This conference provided researchers, practitioners and policy makers with a forum to debate and share methods of building and promoting scholarship. The second international conference took place on 6 and 7 April 2009 and was attended by over 160 national and international delegates.  The third international conference will take place in 2011.

Professor Kathy Murphy

Head of Nursing and Midwifery

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