HSE pays tribute to SETU Psychiatric Nursing graduates

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 this week in Waterford this week for 50 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.

Having begun in September 2019 and on the 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.

Speaking at the ceremony and in making presentations to the students, Avril Nolan (Area Director of Nursing Carlow-Kilkenny/South Tipperary, HSE/South East Community Healthcare) said:

“Today we celebrate an incredible milestone in your lives, each one of you, represents a remarkable journey of dedication, compassion and unwavering commitment. This group of graduates 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/South East Community Healthcare works closely with SETU in facilitating clinical placements across a diverse range of mental health services, including acute inpatient unit, psychiatry of later life, rehabilitation centres. There are also placements in other high, medium and low support residences, day services, specialist nursing support in hospitals and participation in community mental health teams and other community supports and services based in and from Primary Care Centres. 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-ordinators Irene Ryan and Ursula O’ Neill 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 Wadding Byrne (Acute Mental Health Inpatient Units Kilkenny and Waterford).

Among the 2023 South East graduates is Séamus Power. A native of Waterford and living in Co. Wexford, Séamus is a familiar face – as he is also known for his role as the character Dermot Fahey in RTE television’s “Fair City”.