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

Concluding their fourth year of the course and a 36 week continuous internship with the HSE in the South East, the students were presented with their Clinical Practice qualifications at an occasion hosted in the Granville Hotel and attended by friends and family members of the student nurses.

Having begun their course in September 2022, upon completion of their training in the HSE in the coming weeks, the 41 participants will register with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland as Psychiatric Nurses.

Following the presentation of a certificate and a badge to each student, the ceremony featured a “Blessing of the Hands” by Very Rev. Liam Power P.P. 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. The ceremony concluded with students reciting the Nurses Pledge.

Speaking at the ceremony and in making presentations to the students, Emer O Donnell (Nurse Practice Development Co-ordinator Carlow-Kilkenny/South Tipperary Mental Health Services, HSE Dublin and South East) said:

“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 positive mental health and the provision of care to those with mental health problems.”

“The HSE works 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 South East. We were delighted to have these students contribute to delivering mental health services throughout counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford and South Tipperary.”

Dr. Colman Noctor (Mental Health Programme Lead/School of Nursing, SETU) added:

“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.”