Posted on: 14 September 2004
As part of the response to the 1998 Report of the Commission on Nursing recommending the setting up of a national strategy for the education of nurses, Trinity College Dublin’s School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies was officially opened by Mr. Brian Lenihan, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children today. The newly refurbished Art Deco building, funded by the Department of Health and Children at a cost of €16.7 million, was formerly the Bord Gais headquarters on D’Olier Street and is complemented by state-of-the-art clinical skills laboratories situated in the Trinity Centres at St. James’s Hospital and in a planned new development in the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children’s Hospital at Tallaght. “The courses offered by the Trinity School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies are provided in partnership with the nine health service providers linked to the School,” said Prof. Cecily Begley, Director of the School. “The nurses and midwives educated at the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies will continue to uphold Ireland’s long tradition for excellence in practical, caring care. As well as a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, such as nursing, midwifery, paediatric nursing, and gerontological nursing on offer to students, a new four-year degree course in midwifery is proposed for commencement in October 2005.” The School has a national and international reputation for the quality of its research activity and has successfully brought in over €1.4 million in research funding from the Health Research Board and other bodies in the past five years. The newly refurbished building has been subject to surprisingly few modifications since its completion in 1934. The combination of the quaint Neo-Tudor and jazzy Art Deco styles in one building is unique to Dublin. The Art Deco interiors of the building are among the finest in the country. Great care has been taken to conserve the unique architecture of the building and many of the original fixtures and fitting from the 1930s have survived.
