Care assistants in hospitals are to get official funding to enable them to become nurses, the Minister for Health and Children has announced. The move has been welcomed by SIPTU, which represents these workers.
Up to 40 experienced care assistants a year, working in the public health services, will be able to get an arrangement in which their salaries will be paid while they take the four-year nursing degree course.
A SIPTU official, Mr Ramon O'Reilly, said many care assistants who had missed an opportunity to train for nursing when they were younger would be eager to take part in the new scheme.
Next year sees the start of the four-year degree courses for nurses instead of the current diploma course. According to the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, the degree courses "will put the education of nurses on a par with that of other health care professionals". The number of places is to be increased from the current 1,500 to 1,640 from next year.
To facilitate the degree courses, the Department of Health and Children is to spend £176 million to enable 13 higher education institutions to provide the necessary buildings and equipment. Applications for places on the programme will be made through the Central Applications Office.
The move has been welcomed by the Irish Nurses' Organisation. "The realisation of this objective represents a major milestone for nursing and achieves a goal first set over 30 years ago," said Mr Liam Doran, INO general secretary.
He also pressed for more money for nurses, saying: "Nursing must have its relative pay position significantly improved to properly reflect the skills and knowledge of the individual nurse."
In its pre-Budget submission, the INO calls for an additional 8,000 nursing and midwifery posts. It also seeks the introduction of "a Dublin weighting/living allowance (worth at least £3,000), payable to all nurses/midwives in the greater Dublin area".
Epilepsy Pregnancy Register
Each year several hundred Irish women with epilepsy become pregnant, according to Dr Normal Delanty, consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where a new registry to track these pregnancies has been established. Some women with epilepsy may be at increased risk from seizures while pregnant, and their use of anticonvulsant drugs needs to be carefully managed by their doctors.
They are also prone to folic acid deficiency, a condition that increases the risk of babies being born with spina bifida. The registry will track the outcome of these pregnancies nationally and "will be of great benefit to women with epilepsy and their doctors in the optimum management of their pregnancies", said Dr Delanty.
Blood stocks appeals
Blood stocks appeals by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service for more donors seem to be paying off, with most stocks up to or above the required level last week. The exception was stocks of B, which need boosting. The stock figures are posted on the IBTS website at www.ibts.healthnet.ie every Monday.
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