Policy information
CNO’s Office – Nursing and Midwifery Policy Unit
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
The Office of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), part of the department, works to shape nursing and midwifery policy around the needs of the health service.
The Strategy for the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) provides the necessary direction for the Office in supporting the nursing and midwifery professions and maximising their contribution to health policy. Most importantly, the Strategy's ultimate aim is to help ensure that patients receive the best possible care.
The initiatives below aim to:
These initiatives are fully integrated. Once implemented, they have the potential to revolutionise the delivery of nursing and midwifery services within the community and acute health services.
The Values Initiative is led by the Chief Nursing Officer and the Department of Health, in partnership with the Office of the Nursing and Midwifery Services Director, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.
A national consultation process asked nurses and midwives to identify, agree and commit to a set of core values that underpin their practice in Ireland. Values are ingrained principles that guide the actions of nurses and midwives.
Three core values were identified by this consultation process:
The consultation process produced a position paper. Developed in collaboration with the HSE and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, this paper describes the core values underpinning and guiding the practice of nursing and midwifery in Ireland.
These values and their associated behaviours are the essence of nursing and midwifery practice. They form the basis for professional decision-making and actions. Taken together, these values represent the unique contribution of nursing and midwifery to safe patient care.
The HSE and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland are committed to supporting nurses and midwives to practise these values. The values are endorsed and supported by the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer.
Learn more about the core values.
Significant investment is being made in nursing and midwifery. It is therefore important to measure the outcomes and impacts of nursing and midwifery initiatives on patients.
To do this, the department has developed a framework for national performance indicators for nursing and midwifery. This ensures that their development, prioritisation, endorsement and monitoring is standardised.
Learn more about the framework.
A Community Virtual Ward (CVW) is a flexible and integrated model working across community and hospital settings, receiving admissions from both areas. It is termed a CVW as the care is delivered in the community in the person’s home and beds are not physical beds but virtual beds. The CVW operates similarly to a ward, in that a team of nurses provide care for the duration of the admission. The CVW has been adopted and adapted internationally to meet the needs of various populations, including chronic disease management, older persons care and in response to COVID-19, all with positive outcomes. This included improvements in quality of life, better symptom control and management, reduced emergency department presentations and a reduction in unplanned hospital care.
A framework to determine the nurse staffing and skill mix requirements for the nursing workforce is being developed. This means a significant change of emphasis, designed to put patient needs first, in calculating the number and skill mix of nurses and Healthcare Assistants (HCA) needed to work in each care area.
Instead of matching the number of nurses to the size of a ward, the Framework matches nurses and HCAs to the number of patients on the ward, and their care needs.
The Framework is equally focused on creating a healthier and more attractive work environment for staff by stabilising the nursing resource and providing for fairer workloads, a critical factor in recruiting and retaining this vital resource.
Phase One focused on the development of a Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in General and Specialist Adult Hospital Medical and Surgical Care Settings in Ireland.
The Phase 1 Pilot, which took place in six hospital wards, delivered significant benefits.
These benefits include:
Phase 2 focused on the development of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in General and Specialist Adult Hospital Medical and Surgical Care Settings in Ireland.
The Phase 2 pilot, which took place in three emergency departments and one Local Injury Unit, delivered significant benefits.
These benefits include:
Phase 3 will apply to general non-acute care setting. Phase 3 given the range and breath of the non-acute settings will include three different stages.
A growing body of evidence shows that advanced nurse and midwife practitioners make a substantial and positive contribution to the management of long-term conditions. They can improve patient access to services and reduce waiting times, while delivering high quality healthcare.
As senior decision makers, advanced nurse and midwife practitioners undertake a comprehensive advanced physical and or mental health assessment of patients with complex healthcare needs, including those in crisis. They can interpret the results of different assessments and investigations to make a diagnosis, and plan and deliver care.
As team leaders they can confidently and competently make ethical, evidence-based decisions and interventions. They can use appropriate therapies when faced with complexity, and assess and manage the risk associated with these decisions.
The policy aims to create 700 advanced nurse practitioners by 2021, to meet service needs and contribute to addressing the current challenges in service provision.
Learn more about the Policy on the Development of Graduate to Advanced Nursing and Midwifery Practice .
The Nursing and Midwifery Challenge Programme (as part of the Nursing Now Challenge Programme) is facilitated by Chief Nursing Office (CNO), Department of Health and The National Clinical Leadership Centre for Nursing and Midwifery (NCLC), and the Health Service Executive (HSE).
The Nursing and Midwifery Challenge (as part of the Nursing Now Challenge Programme) programme originated as part of the global Nursing Now campaign in 2019. This was a global initiative to bring together health employers to inspire the next generation of nurse and midwives as practitioners, advocates and leaders in health.
Launched at the International Council of Nurses Congress in Singapore, the Nightingale Challenge asked every health employer around the world to provide leadership and development training for a group of young nurses and midwives during 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.
The initial challenge was so successful it has continued and in Ireland still going strong as the Nursing and Midwifery Challenge Programme.
The aim of the NCLC/CNO programme is to encourage and enable the development of the next generation of nurses and midwives to play a more significant role in influencing by learning about health direction and policy. Investing in young nurses and midwives is essential for improving health and health care in Ireland. The programme optimises leadership development for participants, through the delivery of core leadership topics, mentoring, networking and shadowing opportunities.
The programme will be delivered using a blended approach of online and face to face facilitation, over seven half days from April 2024 to November 2024
The aim of the Nursing and Midwifery Challenge Programme is to give nurses and midwives from across services and disciplines the skills required to positively impact on Irish healthcare delivery and explore how they can empower leadership in others. The programme is designed to optimise leadership development for participants through the delivery of core leadership topics and mentoring.
Participants will have the opportunity to:
Mentoring:
Each participant will be given the opportunity to be mentored by a member of either the CNO or ONMSD teams and will be supported by a mentor who is best suited to them from a personal and professional perspective. Their mentor will offer them three-to-four mentoring sessions which will take place between April and November 2024. Guidance on the mentoring relationship will be provided during the course of the programme.
Who can apply?
Staff Nurse and Staff Midwives who have graduated with their first undergraduate qualification in nursing or midwifery after the 01 January 2014.
Dual qualified applicants must have been awarded their first nursing or midwifery undergraduate qualification after the 01 January 2014.
All Staff Nurse and Staff Midwives must acquire their Director of Nursing or Director of Midwifery approval to apply and support for the duration of the programme.
You can apply for the Nursing Now Challenge Programme here.
Applications close 21 February 2024.
Applicants must complete the online application form in full. Please be advised that completion of application form does not guarantee a place. Once applications close you will be informed if you have a place on the programme.
Closing Date: 12:00pm, Thursday 21 February 2024.
For more Information contact Michelle_quinn@health.gov.ie or CNO's_Office@health.gov.ie