The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) has appointed Carolyn Donohoe, Director of Education, Policy and Standards, as NMBI Interim CEO.

Carolyn joined the organisation in 2021 and took up the interim CEO position on 8 April. As a registered nurse, she has brought a wealth of experience in clinical practice, education and continuous professional development, and leadership in regulation to NMBI. As part of NMBI’s senior management team, Carolyn worked closely with NMBI’s outgoing CEO, Sheila McClelland.

Carolyn has led a very positive change in the organisation’s approach to regulatory site inspections, updated a significant number of important resources and provided clarity on safe effective practice - to the benefit of both the public and the professions.  

Dr Karn Cliffe will continue as Director of Professional Standards - Midwifery and also becomes Director of Education, Policy and Standards on an interim basis. Prior to joining NMBI, Karn was responsible for both nursing and midwifery portfolios and brings extensive experience and knowledge to this role and the Education, Policy and Standards Department.

Announcing the appointment, NMBI President Dr Louise Kavanagh McBride said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to wish Carolyn the very best as our Interim CEO and look forward to working closely with her in the coming months.”

Last month we announced that Sheila McClelland was leaving the organisation after five years as CEO.

At its meeting in March, the Board of NMBI thanked Sheila for the leadership she has shown and for her dedication to the organisation and the professions.

From all at NMBI, we would like to wish Sheila the very best for the future and welcome Carolyn to the new role.

Earlier this month, our Interim CEO, Carolyn Donohoe was the keynote speaker at the Erasmus+ funded AHEAD Multiplier Event hosted by DCU, as co-ordinated by Dr Daniela Lehwaldt.

Carolyn spoke about digital health in education and our new standards and requirements on digital health competencies for nursing and midwifery education programmes. She also met with the AHEAD Irish research team.

The Assessment in Healthcare EducAtion goes Digital (AHEAD) project aims to enhance digital assessment in the field of healthcare education across many countries including Ireland, Germany, Georgia and Poland. Its goal is to transform healthcare education using digital teaching and assessment.

You can find out more about the project on the DCU website.

In April, our Fitness to Practise (FTP) Department held three information sessions at the Centre for Midwifery Education, Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital in Dublin 8.

The sessions were presented by Christine Hughes, Professional Advisor and Jeanne Tarrant, Fitness to Practise Officer. They outlined the importance of regulation and the steps involved in the fitness to practise process, as well as providing updates to the FTP process, including our emotional support careline.

During the session they shared anonymised case studies and provided attendees with an overview of NMBI’s fitness to practise statistics.

The interactive session allowed participants to ask questions relating to fitness to practise matters and our team was happy to answer.

The sessions are part of our fitness to practise outreach programme to provide information to nurses and midwives about the importance of the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics.

We would like to thank Hazel Cazzini, Midwifery Specialist Co-ordinator at the Coombe for organising the sessions and thank those in attendance for their positive feedback.

Over the past three months, our Director of Professional Standards – Midwifery, Dr Karn Cliffe visited all 19 maternity units across the country for a series of information sharing sessions.  

Karn, who was appointed Director of Professional Standards – Midwifery in January of this year, undertook the roadshow to meet with midwifery teams and other stakeholders in person to strengthen existing relationships and provide an update on the work we plan to achieve over the next three to five years. 

During her visits, Karn met with colleagues from all areas of midwifery and nursing, Directors of Midwifery, Directors of Nursing, Advanced Midwife and Nurse Practitioners, Assistant Directors of Midwifery and Nursing, Practice Development Teams, Clinical Midwife Specialists, Staff Midwives, senior management and medical colleagues, current undergraduate students, and overseas candidate midwives.  

The roadshow commenced at Tipperary University Hospital in January and finished at Cork University Maternity Hospital at the end of March.  

Speaking about the roadshow, Karn said “Meeting with our midwifery colleagues around the country allowed me to gain insights into their education programmes which will help inform and shape the review of NMBI’s standards and requirements for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. 

I would like to acknowledge the warm reception I received and thank colleagues for the honest and open discussions that took place in each unit.” 

Professional Officers, Lorraine Clarke-Bishop and Mary Devane from our Education, Policy and Standards Department recently attended the Patient and Carer Education Partnership (PCEP) Forum at Queen's University Belfast.

The PCEP forum was first established in 2013 and works in partnership with the School of Nursing and Midwifery to promote effective and meaningful co-production activities between patients, carers and staff members.

They work with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that the next generation of nurses and midwives are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to deliver in a modern healthcare environment.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is about ensuring that health care is person-centred, and that feedback from patients and the public is used to develop, monitor, and improve the education and professions of nursing and midwifery. NMBI's standards and requirements for registration programmes promote PPI in the development of the undergraduate curriculum. NMBI continuously aims to learn from best practice and continue to develop networks locally, nationally and internationally.

The testing window for mature applicants applying for undergraduate nursing and midwifery programmes will open on Wednesday, 8 May at 1pm.

Applicants who have registered must successfully complete the assessments tests online by 1pm on Wednesday, 15 May 2024. It is important to note that those who have not registered, will not be eligible to sit the tests.    

The current assessment comprises of three separate tests:    

• verbal reasoning (also called understanding of basic instructions)   
• numeracy 
• job simulation. 

To pass, applicants must reach a minimum score on each assessment test. Please note that the minimum score for each test will not be decided until the results of all the assessment tests have been analysed. 

To assist applicants in preparing for the assessment tests, NMBI has published a familiarisation booklet. We strongly advise applicants to read this booklet in full before completing the assessment tests.   

Our partner, Aon’s Assessment Solutions has also developed videos to assist applicants in preparing for the tests. These videos will give applicants an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the format and type of questions to expect in the actual tests. For further information, please refer to pages 8-12 of the familiarisation booklet.  

During the assessment test period, email support will be available. Applicants who are experiencing problems during the test must contact Aon’s Assessment Solutions’ helpdesk immediately at nmbi.support@aon-assessment.com. For general queries, please contact NMBI by email at careersinformation@nmbi.ie. Please note that both NMBI and Aon’s Assessment Solutions will not answer queries relating to the content of the test.  

Further details can be found on the Mature Applicants page of our website.  

Last year, we launched an emotional support service for registrants and witnesses involved in the Fitness to Practice (FTP) process. 

The support service is part of our commitment to provide a more compassionate approach for everyone involved in the process.

The careline is provided in collaboration with CiC, a leading Employee Assistance Programme provider. The freephone service enables anyone involved in FTP inquiries to speak with a qualified counsellor about any aspect of the procedure. The emotional support careline is available 24/7 and can be used by any nurse, midwife, nursing associate or witness. NMBI employees and committee members who may be adversely affected by a case or contact with a registrant can also avail of the service.

In addition, NMBI recently appointed a new Liaison Officer to support the FTP Department in the complaints management process to ensure that complaints and inquiries are dealt with in a more compassionate way for all those involved.

For further details on how to access the emotional support service and to find information on other organisations and agencies in Ireland that can provide advocacy or support services, please visit our website.

We have published the site inspection summary report for University of Limerick (UL).

The site inspection of UL took place in October 2023 to review both nursing and midwifery education programmes. The report was approved by the Board of NMBI on 27 March.

We assess and approve all education programmes in nursing and midwifery as part of our mandate to protect the public and the nursing and midwifery professions. We conduct site inspections of university and college departments, and their partner hospitals and health services to ensure high standards of nursing and midwifery education and practice.

The inspection report provides a summary of the commendations, conditions and recommendations of UL’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

We would like to thank UL and their practice partners for their collaboration.

The reports are available to view on our website.

We have published the site inspection monitoring report for Atlantic Technological University, St Angela’s Sligo.

The reports provide a monitoring update of the site inspections conducted by NMBI on 19 July 2023. The monitoring update report is based on information provided by ATU, St Angela’s in collaboration with their practice partners.

As part of our role as a regulator, we assess and approve all undergraduate programmes leading to registration in nursing and midwifery. To ensure these education programmes are of a high standard, we conduct site inspections of university and college departments as well as their partner placement sites. All site inspection reports as well as monitoring update reports of education bodies and their practice partners are published on our website and are available to the public.

The report provides an in-depth look at each education programme and include a summary of the commendations, conditions and recommendations for best practice in professional education.

We would like to thank ATU, St Angela’s and their practice partners for their collaboration and engagement with the process.

We would like to remind all registrants and candidates to ensure that their contact details are correct and up to date.

From time to time, NMBI will need to contact you and therefore it is important that your contact information including your postal address, email address, phone number and employment details are up to date.

We would advise that you log into your account on MyNMBI and check that all your information is correct. If any of your contact information changes, please ensure that you update your details on the portal within 30 days.

This is a legal requirement under Section 53 of the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011, as amended.

The Board of NMBI has made a new decision on findings and sanctions arising from a complaint received.

The finding is published on NMBI's Findings and Decisions page.