(30 November 2017) Tallaght Hospital is celebrating the graduation of 78 nursing students today. Amongst the graduates are 56 General Nurse Graduates from the class of 2013, 16 Children’s and General Integrated Degree Programme graduates (CGIDP) from the class of 2012 and six graduates with Higher Diplomas in Children’s Nursing from the class of 2016.
The six winners of the Clinical Lecturer in Nursing Award were also announced today with clinical nurse managers and staff nurses from the Perioperative, Medical and Paediatric Directorates presented with awards. The winners included; Clinical Nurse Manager Lareina Smith from Alice Reeves Day Ward, Staff Nurse Ivana Palesova from Franks Ward, Clinical Nurse Manager Orla Crowley from Ruttle Ward, Staff Nurse Olive Clarke from the Emergency Department, Clinical Nurse Manager Janet Carter from Oak Ward and Staff Nurse Ciara Barry from Maple Ward.
Permanent nursing posts are being taken up by 63 of the 78 graduate nurses within the hospital following their graduation, continuing the hospital’s trend of retaining a large percentage of student nurses thanks to a bespoke Recruitment and Retention Package and career development opportunities. The package, which aims to support the ongoing career development of all staff in the hospital, was devised in 2015 and includes interview skills workshops, induction programme, clinical skills workshop, access to the Centre of Learning and Development, career coaching, a buddy system and regular meetings with newly qualified nurses to reflect and share their experiences on the wards.
Speaking at the graduation, Áine Lynch, Director of Nursing said: “I want to congratulate each of the graduates who have graduated today, along with their families who have undoubtedly supported them over the last few years. Nursing is an extremely rewarding career and the staff and management of Tallaght Hospital are committed to providing opportunities that can help develop nurses’ careers in the areas of medicine they are particularly interested in. We have a long tradition of providing supportive learning and development environments, so nurses can continue to develop their careers to support their ambitions. The introduction in 2015 of the Recruitment and Retention Package has been very successful in helping us retain quality Graduate nurses and in turn we are thrilled to confirm that 82% of the class of 2013 will take up permanent positions in the hospital.”
ENDS
About Tallaght Hospital
Tallaght Hospital is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, providing child-health, adult, psychiatric and age-related healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds and 67 paediatric bed with 3,000 people on staff. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialities. It is also a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre.
Tallaght Hospital is one of the two main teaching hospitals of Trinity College Dublin - specialising in the training and professional development of staff in areas such as nursing, health and social care professionals, emergency medicine and surgery, amongst many others. Tallaght Hospital is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group and the Children's Hospital Group which serves a population of over 1.2 million across seven counties.
A new satellite centre is to be built at Tallaght Hospital in 2020 as part of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital project as a key element of an integrated clinical network for paediatric services nationally.
The Hospital’s Emergency Departments catered for 49,512 Adult Attendances and 33,717 Paediatric Attendances in 2016. A further 252,418 patients were treated through the Hospital’s adult and paediatric outpatient clinics in 2016. The Hospital’s operations are supported by 200 general practitioners in surrounding communities.
