The first half of the year has been a busy period for NMBI, across all areas of our organisation.

Last month, we announced we were holding the ‘Education Excellence in Nursing and Midwifery’ conference with the Chief Nurse's Office in the Department of Health. We received an overwhelming response and tickets to the event on 5 July were sold out extremely quickly. Unfortunately, not everyone could get tickets but we would like to thank you for your interest and we hope you will be able to attend our events in the future.

We have also been working hard to encourage secondary school students to choose nursing and midwifery as a career. We are currently running an Instagram campaign until the end of June which features nursing and midwifery students and recent graduates who share their stories and experiences. Their stories and enthusiasm for the professions is incredible and we hope that this campaign will inspire young people to choose a career that really makes a difference. It has been an interesting journey engaging in the world of social media messaging to better reach our younger digitally native audience.

We would encourage you to watch the videos and follow us on Instagram @nmbi_ie through the hashtags: #CareerinNursing #CareerinMidwifery #ACareerThatMakesADifference

As you will read in this issue, we have continued our engagement with stakeholders. Earlier this month, Orla Crowe, our Director of Fitness and I were invited to speak at the All-Ireland Sláintecare: Nursing’s Challenge Festival. My colleagues Niamh McDonald and Jeanne Tarrant from the Fitness to Practise Department continued their outreach, speaking to nurses and midwives about the FTP process at the Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Education Sligo, Leitrim and West Cavan. We believe it is important that anyone involved in the FTP process is dealt with compassionately and through these sessions, participants can speak to us directly and ask questions relating to fitness to practise process.

We are asking registered practising nurses to apply to become a member of NMBI’s Fitness to Practise Committee. It is an important function that supports the work of the Board of NMBI and I would encourage anyone who is eligible to consider applying. More information can be found in the news story.

This month, our Director of Registration, Dr Ray Healy along with Ann Marie Murray, Education Assessor and Rachel O'Mara, Staff Officer and Registration Advisor, published new guidance to support Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) who are completing an adaptation assessment programme in Ireland. The development of the guidance documents was the result of a series of focus groups and consultations with our stakeholders, and we would like to thank everyone who contributed. You can read more about the guidance in this issue of our eZine.

Dr Karn Cliffe and her team in our Education, Policy and Standards Department, Mary Devane, Professional Officer and Dee Mooney, Project Manager have undertaken engagement with you all in relation to the professional competence scheme. Thanks to those who have contributed to the online survey, with over 2,000 responses we were delighted with the feedback and they are now engaging online with stakeholders in the healthcare system to present a model to the Board by September,

Finally, I would like to thank all our nursing and midwifery colleagues for their continued dedication to patient care and we look forward to working with you for the second half of the year.