Photographs of each year’s graduate nurses put on display at University Hospital Waterford

The long tradition of nurse training at University Hospital Waterford is being highlighted by a display of photographs now on permanent display in the hospital.

Launched at a ceremony to coincide with International Nurse’s Day, seven decades of University Hospital Waterford’s annual nurse graduation photographs have been placed along the walls of the link corridor connecting the main hospital building to its Dunmore Wing.

Réalta/Waterford Healing Arts supported the restoration, reframing and relocation of the images to form the historical archive.

From its opening as the Ardkeen Chest Hospital in 1952, through its functioning as the regional hospital of the South Eastern Board to its latter day development as the HSE’s University Hospital Waterford (UHW) serving the South East region, on-the-job nurse training has featured in the day to day activities of the hospital.

In recent decades, modern degree-level education at the South East Technological University (SETU)’s Department of Nursing and Healthcare features clinical placements at UHW. Applications to SETU’s BSc (Hons) in General Nursing and BSc in Nursing Studies for Clinical Practice are via the CAO system and sees its students complete 80 weeks of clinical placement at HSE healthcare facilities in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and South Tipperary, including a 36 week continuous internship in year four.

Initiated by the International Council of Nurses, International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every May 12th, the anniversary of the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale's birth. It marks the contribution that nurses make to society. This year’s theme “Our Nurses, Our Future: Caring for nurses strengthens economies” highlights the vital role of the nursing workforce in improving health outcomes and delivering the trusted, person-centred care that can transform health systems and address the world’s biggest health challenges.

Launching the display of photographs, Niamh Sheehan (Director of Nursing, UHW) said:

“We are delighted that the contribution of nurses to this hospital and to healthcare more widely is being recognised by this montage of photographs, with accompanying captions containing the names of those pictured. To date, we had some of them on the walls in the nurse education section in a part of the building not accessible to patients and visitors. The space afforded by a non-clinical environment like the public link corridor to the Dunmore Wing will allow people to see our collection, which begins with a photograph from 1968 featuring the nine nursing graduates and their tutors. Reflecting the growth of the hospital in the meantime, for instance, the 2004 photograph shows 55 such graduates.”

“The display will be a source of interest to visitors to UHW, in that there will be so many connections between the viewer and those in the images. We look forward to adding annual UHW nurse graduation photographs to these corridor walls into the future”

“We are also pleased to be launching the new feature on International Nurses Day. Through time, now and into the future, nurses perform a vital service as part of a multidisciplinary team in promoting and maintaining health of individuals, families and communities and in systematically caring for those who develop health problems and supporting them to live their lives to their maximum potential.”

The restoration and reframing work was carried out by photographer and framer Tom Quilty, who is also one of Réalta’s Art Installers at UHW, with support from Réalta Curator Aisling Kennedy and Assistant Administrator Ann Murphy. The Réalta team worked in collaboration with UHW’s General Manager Ben O’Sullivan, Director of Nursing Niamh Sheehan and Nurse Practice Development Co-ordinator/Assistant Director of Nursing Nora Flynn.

Curator Aisling Kennedy said:

“The collection beautifully documents the changing faces, styles and traditions of nursing graduates in Waterford across the decades, while celebrating the enduring contribution of nurses to healthcare in Waterford and the South East.”