What we do

Nursing Forum

As a representative body of the Nurse Membership of the IAPC, the Nursing Forum is charged with establishing aims and objectives of the group in line with those brought by the wider membership of nurses within the IAPC. This will be an ongoing and iterative process.

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Through engagement with the IAPC membership, it has become apparent that nurses within the IAPC wish to be connected through a formal network within the IAPC.Nurses make up the largest group of professionals within the IAPC comprising currently approximately 120 members. Historically and presently, there is no formal national network of nurses working in interdisciplinary palliative care that functions as a membership organisation. While nurses are linked in and are active in a variety of networks within the wider palliative care field in Ireland, there is an absence of a single voice for palliative care nurses like there is in many other specialities e.g., Gerontological Nurses, Respiratory Nurses, Urology Nurses etc. hence the IAPC Nursing Forum has been established to fill that void.

Hike Group
Hike Group

In order for nurses to proactively contribute to the IAPC’s objectives, opportunities within this large and diverse subgroup of members must be created to enhance networking, share learning, provide opportunities for education, promote evidence-based research, produce publications, and generate a body of experts to represent palliative care nursing on national bodies and to influence the development of national policy. The IAPC Nursing Forum has become a major strand of the IAPC’s work agenda and through this will address key strategic aims of the organisation.

The establishment of the IAPC Nursing Forum aims to create an innovative and energetic space where IAPC nurses come together to network and identify and progress areas of communal interest with a future focus. Furthermore, the Forum has the potential to be the source of a strong nursing voice within the interdisciplinary palliative care field in the whole of Ireland and further afield.

Whilst the Nursing Forum steering group consists of 12-15 members, the Forum represents the voice of all nurse members of the IAPC.

Specifically, it will:

  • Establish working groups/subgroups within the various sub-specialities e.g. Intellectual Disability, Chronic Diseases or in line with career structures such as for instance an ANP or CNS Network.
  • Provide and deliver educational opportunities specific to Palliative Care Nursing; for instance webinars, attendance at national or international conferences etc.
  • Provide a platform for IAPC Nurse Members to present audits, research, service development initiatives in order to engage with Palliative Care colleagues.
  • Provide opportunities for Palliative Care Nurses to influence national policy and to contribute actively by being linked into stakeholder organisations within the field of Palliative Care.
  • Contribute to the development of an informal mentoring structure (with view to more formal structures) in order to engender passion for palliative care and support the next generations of nurses working in palliative care.
  • Develop links with 3rd level Institutions.
  • Develop means to promote Palliative Care Nursing and lobby for issues raised by Nurses.
  • Provide structures, means and technology to support subgroups within the forum.
  • Provide regular updates of organisational, national and international issues of interest to Nurse Members.

Forum members

Who are the Nursing Forum

Aislinn O Rourke

Clinical Nurse Specialist

St. Francis Hospice, Dublin

Bettina Korn

Interim Working Group

End of Life Care Coordinator

St. James Hospital, Dublin

Caoimhe Wade

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Irish Cancer Society

Cathy Killeen

Night Nursing Education
Development Co-ordinator

Irish Cancer Society

Deborah Murphy

Clinical Nurse Specialist

University Hospital Waterford

Eimear Hallissey

Clinical Nurse Manager

Kerry Community Services PC

Geraldine Purcell

Lecturer in Nursing

South East Technological University

Julie Goss

Interim Working Group

Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

Lasarina Marguire

Interim Working Group

Night Nurse

Irish Cancer Society

Linda Rogers

Advanced Nurse Practitioner Specialist

Naas General Hospital

Mary Burke

Clinical Nurse Specialist

Galway University Hospital

Paula Ward

Palliative Care Advanced
Nurse Practitioner

Midland Regional Hospital

Shauna Munir

Advanced Nurse Practitioner

Our Lady’s Hospice, Dublin

Stacey Power

Interim Working Group

Lecturer/Ass Prof in Nursing

University College Dublin

Tina Bolger

Childrens Clinical Nurse Specialist

Kerry Hospice

Valerie Walsh

Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist

Wicklow Hospice

Zara Fay

Clinical Nurse Specialist /
Ass Prof in Palliative Care

St. Francis Hospice, Dublin

USEFUL FORUM Documents

Download Nursing Forum
Governance Handbook

Interest form

Forum Membership
Interest Form Submission

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