Martina (known as Tina) is the Head of Education, Research and Quality at Milford Care Centre and has more than twenty five years’ experience of working in palliative and end of life care. She is an experienced and ambitious person in education management, and lectured in the Department of Nursing at Waterford Institute of Technology over the last ten years. A large focus of her extensive teaching career has been to develop health care programmes for various institutions and organisations to include curriculum, modules and courses for third level, HSE and charitable organisations whilst competently using learning platforms such as Blackboard and Moodle. She describes her passion in education for both palliative and end of life care; and the designing and development of learning environments as: “…her drive to strive for and achieve that light bulb moment of quality learning”.

Tina has lectured from FETAC levels to undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students and qualified staff in clinical skills, lecturing and small group teaching. Module leader, Key Link Lecturer and Academic Advisor were amongst the numerous roles successfully undertaken as a member of a Nurse Education team. She has facilitated the learning for all levels of staff (newly qualified, CNM, CNS level), and training for non-nursing staff, for example, volunteers.

Tina has considerable clinical expertise in and is passionate about leading excellence in the delivery of quality evidence based care. Her commitment is towards the provision of quality care for people requiring palliative and end of life care, their families and supporting healthcare professionals in the management and delivery of healthcare. She has a lengthy career to include working in specialist cancer and hospice settings, community care and acute settings in England and Ireland both as nursing leads and manager but also Head of Education in a hospice.

As Head of Education, she led the development of excellent education programmes relevant to the work of North London Hospice both in the In-patient Unit and Community Care settings that contributed to the organisations vision and strategic direction. Tina pursued and developed new collaborative partnerships internally and externally, for example Clinical Lead for End of Life Care in the NHS (UCL Partners), Specialist Practitioner in Dementia Care (St. Mary’s Paddington) and Research funding opportunities (Royal Free Hospital).

For the last few years, Tina was a member of the Education and Research Group with the Palliative Care Association in Ireland. Along with her colleagues, in preparation for an Education and Research conference, an abstract reviewer was one of her many roles. She has also considerable clinical expertise in cancer survivorship care and is passionate about leading excellence in the care of these survivors. Her commitment is towards the provision of quality care for cancer survivors, their families and supporting healthcare professionals in the management of survivorship care. Tina was presented with a Special Award for the Best Oncology/Palliative Care Oral Presentation at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) 36th Annual International Nursing and Midwifery Education and Research Conference in Dublin.

Publications

O’Gorman, C., Stack, J., Denieffe, S., Gooney, M., McKnight, M., Sharp, L. (2018) Colorectal cancer survivors: an investigation of symptom burden and influencing factors. BMC Cancer 18:1022. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-018-4923-3.

McKnight, M. (2018) Specialist End of Life Care issues and services in North London. End of Life Care Forum, Hendon, London, May, 2018 (Oral Presentation).

McKnight, M., O’Gorman, C., Stack, J., Denieffe, S., Gooney, M., Sharp, L. (2017) Exploring the journey of colorectal cancer survivors: An investigation of symptom frequency, occurrence and influencing factors. 36^th Annual International Nursing Research Conference 2013, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, 1st – 2nd March, 2017 (Oral Presentation).

McKnight, M., O’Gorman, C., Stack, J., Denieffe, S., Gooney, M., Sharp, L. (2016) Colorectal cancer survivors: an investigation of symptom frequency, occurrence and influencing factors. University Hospital Waterford Research Meeting, 21st November, 2016 (Poster).

McKnight, M. & Meaney, T. (2013) A Qualitative Investigation into Nurses’ Experiences of Reflection in Caring for Cancer Patients. Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery 32nd Annual International Nursing Research Conference 2013, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 20th – 21st February, 2013 (Oral Presentation).

Tel: 061 485881. Email: t.mcknight@milfordcarecentre.ie

Mary qualified as a registered general nurse in 2000 and joined Milford Care Centre in 2009 where she has developed her expertise and skill in the delivery of specialist palliative care . Mary also works with the Irish Cancer society as a night nurse on a part time basis. A lifelong learner Mary has received a higher diploma in Health Promotion (NUIG), post graduate diploma in Palliative Care (NUIG) and is currently completing a masters in Nurse Education (NUIG). Mary works in the education department on a part time basis while continuing to work in clinical practice.

 

 

Biography – Helen Flanagan

Registered as an RGN in 1996, worked in various clinical settings including general medical & surgical wards, oncology and specialist palliative care (SPC). Worked in SPC in Milford Care Centre, Limerick for 15 years. During this time completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Palliative Care, Masters in Palliative Nursing and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Nursing Education. Currently working part-time as a Nurse Tutor in the Education Dept. at Milford Care Centre.

Jacqueline is a nurse tutor in Milford Care Centre. She trained as a Registered General Nurse in the UK before returning to Limerick. The palliative care philosophy has always been central to her work and she has worked across many areas of specialist palliative care including hospice inpatient unit, specialist palliative care day unit and specialist palliative care community services. During this time Jacqueline completed a BSc in Nursing (UL), a Post Grad Diploma in Palliative Nursing (NUIG) and a MSc in Nurse Education (NUIG). Jacqueline’s areas of interest include communication, psychological needs of the palliative patient and provision/ promotion of palliative education across all settings.

Publications

Reed, J. (2020) Depressive symptoms in the last year of life- early screening and varied treatment pathways needed. Evidence Based Nursing. Published online first 7/2/20. doi 10.1136/ebnurs-2019-103246.

Reed, J. (2019) Place of death preference among people with dementia: an important conversation. Evidence Based Nursing. Published online first 15/10/2019. Doi   ebnurs-2019-103163.

Reed, J., O’Hara, M. (2019) The impact of attendance at a specialist palliative care day unit on patient symptoms and quality of life. Poster Presentation Irish Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) Research and Education Seminar.

Joanne is the Librarian in Milford Care Centre. She manages the physical and electronic resources in the Library and Information Service, supports learning, education and research activities and delivers training in searching the literature, critical appraisal and systematic reviews. She also provides administrative and educational support for Milford’s E-Learning platform E-Life.  Joanne’s other interests include e-learning, bibliotherapy, information literacy, open access and scientific writing.  Joanne  completed a B.Sc. Hons in Biochemistry, National University of Ireland, Galway; a Masters in Library & Information Studies, University College Dublin, Certificate in Training and Continuing Education and a Graduate Diploma in Digital Media Development for Education in the University of Limerick.

Publications

• Callinan J, Balanda K, Bradley L, (2013) How to increase access to research on death, dying and loss? Poster Presentation 3rd International Conference on Public Health and Palliative Care, Limerick 25th-27th April 2013.
• Callinan J, McLoughlin K, Rhatigan J, Richardson M. (2013) Evaluation of a bibliotherapy service for bereavement support. Oral Presentation 3rd International Conference on Public Health and Palliative Care, Limerick, 25th-27th April 2013.
• Callinan J, Balanda K & Bradley L (2013) Supporting Open Access to Health Knowledge Resources across Ireland: Linking with NECOBELAC, An Leabharlann, 22(1):30-32.
• Callinan J, McLoughlin K, Rhatigan J, Richardson M (2013) Attitudes and experiences towards setting up a bibliotherapy service for the bereavement support service, National Institute for Health Sciences Research Bulletin, 6(4):53.
• Callinan J, (2011) Attitudes and experiences towards setting up a bibliotherapy service for the bereavement support service. Oral presentation at Best Posters Session at EAHIL Conference, Istanbul, Turkey. http://eahil2011.ku.edu.tr/poster
• Callinan J, McLoughlin K, McCarthy P (2010) Analysis of library associated information needs of staff in a specialist palliative and gerontological care centre in Mid-West Ireland. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 27(4): 286-294.
• Callinan JE, Clarke A, Doherty K, Kelleher C. Legislative smoking bans for reducing secondhand smoke exposure, smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD005992. DOI:10.1002/14651858.CD005992.pub2.
• http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD005992/pdf fs.html
• Joanne Ni Challanain, Bernard Barrett & McCarthy F (2007) Health Information Professionals: Roles, Skillset and Barriers to Involvement in the Cochrane Process. Conference Proceeding, EAHIL 2007. Oral Presentation and paper presented at the European Association of Health Information and Libraries Conference, KraKow, Poland, 12th-15th September 2007.
• http://www.eahil.net/conferences/krakow 2007/www.bm.cmuj-krakow.pl/eahil/proceedings/oral/NI%20Challanain%20i%20Barrett.pdf
• Callinan J. & Barrett B, Oral Presentation “Framing questions, discerning clues, sifting the evidence: why and how Librarians can adopt the principles of Evidence-Based Practice. CILIP / Library Association of Ireland Annual Joint Conference. Portlaoise. April 26th 2007.
• Callinan J, Barrett B (2006) Contributions made by Librarians to the Cochrane Collaboration in Ireland. Poster Presentation: Cochrane Collaboration in Ireland Conference, February 2006, Dublin City University.
• Callinan, JE (2005) Information-seeking behaviour of undergraduate biology students: A comparative analysis of first year and final year students in University College Dublin. Library Review, 54(2): 86 – 99.

Click here to visit the Library and Information Service page.

Caroline is a full time Risk Management and Safety Officer at Milford Care Centre. Caroline completed a BBS at University of Limerick, majoring in Risk Management. She then went on to complete a Post graduate diploma in Computing at University of Limerick, and worked for a number of years in financial software consultancy and training.

Caroline then completed the Diploma in Health, Safety and Welfare at Work at University of Limerick, and has worked in this area for the last number of years. Caroline is a qualified Manual Handling Instructor and MAPA (Management of Actual and Potential Aggression) Instructor.

Jacquleyne Murray McCarthy is Quality and Development Officer for Milford Care Centre. Jacquelyne joined the team in 2021. Jacquelyne is a registered Nurse in Intellectual Disability having completed her Nursing Degree in the University of Limerick. Jacquelyne has worked many years in Melbourne Australia in nursing management in Mental Health before returning back to Limerick. Jacquelyne’s areas of interest are patient and service users engagement, quality and quality improvement. She is currently completing her masters in Quality and Safety in Healthcare from Galway – Mayo  Institute of Technology.

Helen is education adminstrator. She co-ordinates all course bookings and is the link person for external organisations seeking to hire the education venue. Contact Helen via email at education@milfordcarecentre.ie or call 061 485 841.

Martine is the Education Department Distance Learning Administrator for the past four years having previously worked as Secretary to the Specialist Palliative Care Community Services Department.  She coordinates bookings and administration and communicates to candidates regarding all distance learning courses

She can be contacted by email at D.Learning@milfordcarecentre.ie or by phone on 061 485863