• Login
Student focus - Preceptor award goes annual

Student officer Dara Ann O’Malley provides details of the INMO Preceptor of the Year Award and the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon

After the popularity of last year’s ‘Preceptor of the Year’ award, the INMO has decided to make it an annual event. The award will be given to an INMO member, who has inspired and motivated a nursing/midwifery student to reach their potential.

Students can nominate their preceptor before April 12 online or by email via the form on the INMO website www.inmo.ie The Preceptor of the Year will be invited with a guest to receive their award at the annual awards dinner at the ADC in Letterkenny in May. They will also receive a €1,000 cash prize sponsored by Cornmarket. The student member who nominated the winning preceptor will also be invited with a guest to the awards dinner.

The INMO Executive Council hopes that this award will give recognition to the vital and essential work of preceptors, which is a fundamental component of nursing and midwifery education.

Flora Women’s Mini Marathon
An INMO group will take part in the 2013 Flora Women’s Mini Marathon on June 3 to raise money for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. Entries can be made at www.florawomensminimarathon.ie before April 24. Members can sign up for the INMO group at www.alzheimer.ie Members will be posted an INMO T-shirt and sponsorship card and will be invited to attend a ‘cool down party’ after the race in the Lost Society on South William Street.

Graduate jobs initiative
I would like to thank the 2010/11/12 graduates for successfully boycotting the graduate jobs initiative to date. The HSE still refuses to release the number of applicants for the graduate jobs but the INMO is confident that a very small number of general nurses graduates applied.

A protest demonstration outside HSE HQ on February 1 was hugely successful, with over 200 people attending. The protest was widely covered in the media and the campaign received significant public support. On the day of the protest the HSE announced that the application deadline for the graduate jobs initiative is indefinite and that it had advised the nursing colleges and directors of nursing that all employment to be offered to 2013 graduates will be under the initiative.


The INMO continues to lobby government TDs about the recruitment campaign and raise the issue at all Croke Park II talks. The Organisation (in conjunction with student unions and the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland) marched in protest to the constituency office of the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Dennihan, on February 4. Minister Dennihan drove past the 100-strong crowd of nurses and midwives who were waiting for him to arrive, while his representative informed union officials that he had been called away on urgent business and would not be attending his constituency clinic. The protestors were very disappointed, however the INMO organised another meeting with Minister Dennihan on February 11.

Other events organised as part of the INMO graduate campaign include:

  • Austerity marches – February 9 Protests took place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford. Graduates and students wore their yellow campaign t-shirts and were highly visible among the crowd.
  • Emigration train – February 13 This graduate demonstration was held outside Leinster House while the Dáil was in session. I was dressed in a red train costume and 20 nursing and midwifery students lined up behind me in yellow campaign t-shirts holding placards with the names of different destinations where they were planning on emigrating to, such as London, Australia, New York. This stunt aimed to remind Health Minister James Reilly that graduate nurses and midwives should not have to emigrate for jobs.
  • 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance national rally – February 18

This rally took place in The Basketball Stadium in Tallaght. Over 4,000 people attended. The graduates and students were easily identifiable in the crowd in their yellow campaign T-shirts and kept the graduate campaign in the minds of the media.

I would encourage all students and graduates to keep an eye on the ‘Call to Action - INMO Newly Qualified Nurses and Midwives’ group page for further updates on the graduate campaign.

Student focus - Preceptor award goes annual
Site Map
Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (Cumann Altrai agus Ban Cabhrach na hEireann). The Whitworth Building, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7. T:+353 1 664 0600 E:inmo@inmo.ie