Nursing and health care education in Kerry has for many years been at the leading edge of innovation. This spirit of exploration and the quest for ways to improve quality originate from the educational team that was conceived in the School of Nursing at Tralee General Hospital (TGH) and now has assimilated into the Department of Nursing and Health Care Studies at IT Tralee (ITT). This team has a balance of youth and experience, is highly motivated and is a net contributor to the national nursing context. The team is facilitated by the Head of Department, Dr. Gary Brown, who was the first person in Ireland to qualify with a PhD under the An Bord Altranais doctoral scholarship scheme.

The team has developed a distinctive philosophy of education based on learning from example. The team believes that nurses should place patients at the centre of a caring and empowering process. The team is convinced that students should be treated in the same way. This spirit of partnership is not only evident within the Department but extends locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The advances in education that have occured here have only been possible because of the highly cooperative relationship that exists between education and health in Kerry. The client centred educational philosophy means that academic developments are focussed upon making a difference in practice.

In 1998, through partnership with the ITT, the School of Nursing at TGH became the first and remains the only School of Nursing in the country to provide the National Diploma in Nursing and B.Sc. in Nursing for registered nurses. This local partnership then became the first to make the Diploma programme available through videoconferencing, via a link to our colleagues in Bantry. In the field of research the team is also innovative. In 1998, well in advance of national developments, the team submitted to the Department a working proposal for a national database of research, DINAMO (the Database of Irish Nursing And Midwifery research On-line).

Innovation is evident in the arena of course development. The team developed an exciting Health Care Assistant programme. The programme was the first to be developed as an NCVA level 2 compliant programme in advance of the national pilot scheme. The course also leads by combining hospital and community health care assistant education. The Department of Nursing and Health Care Studies now offers a wide range of courses, being the first Institute of Technology Department of Nursing & Health Care Studies to offer a Masters course - the M.A. in Advancing Practice in conjunction with an international partner, the University of Teesside. This M.A., which requires students to apply evidence based practice within their own field, is leading to action research projects being implemented within both Kerry and Cork. In addition, the Department offers both M.Sc. and PhD study pathways through research.

Making a Difference: Becoming a Nurse in Tralee, the video promoting nursing as a career was launched by Health Minister Micheal Martin on 24th February 2003 and is yet another example of how the boundaries of health care education are continuously being extended by the educational team here in Kerry.