Intellectual disability nursing in Ireland: Identifying its development and future

Abstract

As a profession, intellectual disability nursing has often come under scrutiny and been called into question. Since its inception as an individual nursing profession in 1959 in Ireland, both education and service provision philosophies have changed over time.These changes have been in response to national and international reports and changing attitudes. The changes have led to the current position where intellectual disability nurse education in Ireland is a four-year undergraduate course. As the discipline of intellectual disability nursing is unique to Ireland and the United Kingdom, there is a responsibility on intellectual disability nurses to identify their unique identity and their responses to the demands of changing services. This article traces the development of intellectual disability nursing in Ireland and identifies implications for the future.

Nursing Education About People with Intellectual Disability. An International Perspective

“…Ireland experienced different infl uences on the introduction of IDD nursing with a formal introduction that came about in 1959 [ 23 ]. For a list of historical events and legislative infl uences for the UK and Ireland, see Table 158.2 .…”

The role and development of consultancy in nursing practice

“…Moreover, Patterson et al (2003) acknowledges that current definitions of advanced practice do not always reveal the similarities in function that can exist between roles such as general nurse, specialist nurse, advanced nurse practitioner, nurse practitioner and nurse consultant. Therefore, there is an onus on nurses to make the invisible aspects of their particular role visible by actively engaging in research and practice publications (Doody et al, 2012). Caplan (1970) was the first to identify types of consultancy (Table 2): • Focus is on advice and involves the consultant making direct recommendations to the consultee on how best to help an individual client.…”

“…Through nurse consultancy and publishing the outcomes, nurses have a greater opportunity to actively influence healthcare provision and this need to be considered and supported. The development of the nurse consultant role, the inclusion of consultancy within advanced/expert practice roles and the establishment of clinical commissioning groups in the UK demonstrates the commitment by health services to advancing the nursing profession (Doody et al, 2012). The evolving shortages of nurses, ageing of the population, profound increases in chronic illnesses and the increased use of support personnel, for example, are contributing to opportunities where nurses can share their expertise in brief, informal encounters or through more formal contractual relationships.…”

Nursing documentation in palliative care: An integrative review

“…Nursing documentation is a communication tool demonstrating not only evidence of what the nurse actually does for the patient, but also provides a tool to audit the written record of the patient's journey [8]. While having clear documentation is an essential requirement for nursing practice, there is also a need for the profession to make their contribution to healthcare visible [9][10][11].…”