Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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An exploratory descriptive study of: Registered Nurses’
experiences of delivering oncology shared care in a
paediatric unit in the Republic of Ireland.
Name Ms Fiona Hurley
Job Title Professional Learning Facilitator
Address
Centre for Nurse Education
HSE West (Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary)
Mid Western Regional Hospital
Dooradoyle
Limerick
Qualifications RGN, RCN, RNT, H. Dip in Nursing Studies (Sick
Children’s Nursing), BSc in Nursing (Hons), MSc in Nursing (CHSE
strand)
Telephone number 061 482386
Fax 061 482968
Email Fiona.hurley@mailh.hse.ie
Background and context
This study was undertaken in one of the sixteen-paediatric units,
which delivers oncology shared care in the Republic of Ireland.
Shared care has been defined as care which applies when the
responsibility for the healthcare of the patient is shared between
individuals or teams who are part of separate healthcare
organizations or where substantial organizational boundaries exit
(Pritchard and Hughes, 1995). Shared care was initiated in Ireland
in the 1980’s for children who were at a palliative care stage in their
oncology treatment to reduce the number of journeys children and
families had to make to the specialist centres. Over the years the
service has dramatically expanded and children are regularly
admitted to paediatric units in General Hospitals throughout the
country. Although shared care was initiated originally for children
receiving palliative care shared care has now extended to children
receiving treatment in the acute phase of their illness. However
shared care has never been formally evaluated and indeed there are
no studies investigating the experiences of nurses delivering shared
care in the paediatric units throughout the country.
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