Nurses and Midwives for Inclusion Health launched in Ireland

Inspired by the success of the QNI Homeless Health Programme and the London Network for Nurses and Midwives Homelessness Group, a new clinical network – Nurses and Midwives for Inclusion Health (NMIH) – has just been launched in Ireland.

Nurses and Midwives for Inclusion Health is a new professional interest group of nurse and midwife practitioners working in contexts where access to and uptake of health services is limited as a result of marginalisation, discrimination or lack of awareness.

Examples of these practice areas include: homeless health, migrant/refugee health, traveller health, mental health, disability health, forensic and prisoner health, addiction health and sexual health. The aims of NMIH are to share and develop excellence in nursing and midwifery inclusion health and to support practitioners in professional and practice development, education and research.

Deputy Chief Nurse Rachel Kenna officially launched the NMIH network in Dublin on 29^th November. In her speech Rachel outlined the contribution that nurses and midwives can make to the development of inclusion health practice, policy, research and education in Ireland. The launch was organised by the NMIH working group in collaboration with the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University and The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Ireland.

Samantha Dorney-Smith, Nurse Project Lead of the QNI Homeless Health Programme gave a keynote speech. There was also a presentation by Homeless Health Peer Advocate Sophie Mullervey and several other peers contributed to presentations/discussions throughout the day.  A wide range of poster presentations also illustrated the range of dynamic interventions undertaken by Irish nurses and midwives in contexts of Inclusion Health.

The event was a huge success with around 100 attendees from across Ireland and ten nurses gave excellent presentations about their work.  These included a profile of current nurse/midwife led initiatives and the challenges of working with homeless families, a report from the homeless hospital discharge team based in St James’ Hospital in Dublin, a talk on the BBV stabilisation unit provided by the Simon community in Dublin, and a report from the pan-Ireland mobile unit service Safetynet on screening asylum seekers.

You can find out more about the work of NMIH on its new website, which shares information about Inclusion Health issues, discussions, practice and research undertaken by nurses and midwives in Ireland.

The QNI is very proud to have prompted the launch of this network, and looks forward to partnership in the future.

Dr Briege Casey

Associate Professor / SNPCH Academic Group Lead – Community Health, Dublin City University

briege.casey@dcu.ie

Photo by Gregory DALLEAU on Unsplash.