UCD students get a Royal placement

THE ROYAL Hospital Donnybrook (RHD) has become a teaching hospital affiliated to UCD’s medical school. The first of 50 UCD medical students began their clinical placement in the RHD last month.

The students are getting practical, hands-on experience of medicine for the elderly under the supervision of Dr Danielle Ní Chróinín, a UCD lecturer in geriatric medicine.

Currently, the students are involved in tutorials, ward-rounds, attendance at multidisciplinary meetings, and participation in care settings ranging from the day hospital to inpatient care.

Dr Ní Chróinín said this clinical placement was taking place in the students’ penultimate or final year of medical school and was part of the “Medicine in the Community” programme which had been developed to focus on the provision of care in the community or in local hospitals such as the RHD.

“As the country’s population ages, the attendant changes in healthcare requirements need to be addressed at an educational level. The RHD will provide students with direct experience of medicine for the elderly, allowing them to learn how to effectively treat the patient demographic of tomorrow,” Dr Ní Chróinín said.

She praised the involvement of the hospital and the consultant geriatricians of St Vincent’s Hospital in making the transition to a teaching hospital.

“This programme recognises both the increasing importance of primary care in today’s healthcare system, and the specialist expertise of physicians in medicine for the elderly in treating, rehabilitating and offering continuing care to older persons,” she said.

The hospital provides rehabilitation, complex extended care and respite services to adults with physical and neuro-disability and to older people in about 200 inpatient beds and also has a 25-place day hospital.

The RHD claims to be the oldest voluntary hospital in either Britain or Ireland, and specialises in care for the elderly.

RHD chief executive Graham Knowles said: “This affiliation to UCD will further strengthen the capacity and capability of the hospital and is also a significant development in the history of the RHD.”