March has been a busy month for our organisation, across all areas of our remit, as the first quarter of the year comes to an end.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate our new Vice President, Áine Lynch, who was elected to the role at our recent Board meeting on 22 March. She has a wealth of experience and I wish her well in the role.

I also want to pay tribute to our Director of Fitness to Practise, Colm O’Leary who leaves the organisation at the end of this month to take up a new role. Under his leadership, the department made great advancements, particularly during the pandemic when we were able to progress with fitness to practise hearings using new platforms to facilitate both in-person and hybrid format inquiries. He also previously held the position of Director of Registration and played a key role in the roll out of the online registration system, MyNMBI.

I would like to thank him for his enthusiasm and dedication over the past four years. He has truly made a positive impact on the organisation and I wish him the very best in his new endeavours.

As you will read in this issue, the annual registration renewal process for 2023 has been finalised and I would like to thank all our registrants who completed the process. Based on the information you have provided, we will begin to develop our next State of the Register report. The data we collate from the renewal process will help policy-makers to make informed decisions to better support the professions and the public. Over the past month alone, we have presented our data to our colleagues at LauraLynn and Cork University Hospital. The feedback we have received shows how important this data is and we look forward to publishing the second edition later in the year.

We were also delighted to meet with Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Akhilesh Mishra, last month. We are conscious of the need for more registered nurses and midwives in the Irish healthcare system and we will continue our work to assist overseas applicants who wish to join the NMBI Register. 

Following the publication of our first site inspection reports last year, I’m pleased to present the monitoring update reports for Dundalk Institute of Technology, Munster Technological University and University of Galway in this issue. As part of our role as regulator, we review education bodies that deliver nursing and midwifery education programmes and the clinical placement sites to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the curriculum structures, processes and outcomes. I’d like to thank the site inspection teams and the education bodies for their engagement in this process. The high standards of nursing and midwifery education they demonstrated is clearly reflected in the reports.

I would also like to remind our readers to share their views by taking part in a public consultation on the Draft Digital Health Competency Standards and Requirements for Undergraduate Nursing and Midwifery Education Programmes. The draft standards aim to ensure nurses and midwives are confident in accessing and managing quality-assured digital health systems and solutions when they graduate. Your feedback is important to us and will help to inform future undergraduate nursing and midwifery education programmes. The consultation closes at 5pm on Tuesday, 11 April.

In this issue, we also include an update on mature applicant entry into undergraduate nursing and midwifery education programmes, as well as information on the revalidation of adaptation and assessment sites.

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all our registered nurses and midwives for their work and for the positive impact they continue to make to the Irish healthcare system. We look forward to working closely with you in the coming months.