With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 30 to 33 inclusive, together. There are some, 1,800 places in the nurse training schools in this country for general nursing and for psychiatric nursing. Most of the training in general nursing is carried out in the voluntary hospitals. The number of places available is considered sufficient to meet the needs of the nursing services in this country.
There is very keen competition for places in the nurse training schools specially those for general nursing and some applicants who are not successful in getting places here go to the United Kingdom to do training. Some of the nurses who train here emigrate after completion of their training and equally some nurses who are trained elsewhere subsequently return here to take up nursing.
The position is kept under review but, in general, there does not appear to be any need at the present time for increasing the number of training places. At present a working party are examining the role and education of nurses, including recruitment policies, and I expect to have a report from that working party by the end of the year.
Information is not available as to the number of girls who having failed to get places in nurse training schools in this country, go to the United Kingdom for training. I am informed that approximately 600 nurses originally registered in the United Kingdom applied in the past year for registration on the Irish register kept by An Bord Altranais. This does not necessarily mean that they took up nursing in this country but it does indicate that they were interested in applying for posts here.
As regards ensuring that Irish girls who fail their nursing examinations in British teaching hospitals are informed of the reasons for such failure, I do not consider that it would be appropriate for me to make representations on this matter. I have no reason to believe that these girls find it difficult to ascertain the reasons for their failure.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate with the Official Report a table showing, for each health board, the number of applications for nurse training received and the number of places available in each of the past three years.
Following is the statement:
Number of applications received and number of places available for nurse training in health board institutions (for general and psychiatric nurse training).
Health Board
|
1975
|
1976
|
1977
|
Eastern Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
398
|
736
|
621
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
43
|
23
|
83
|
Midland Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
150
|
523
|
450
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
43
|
28
|
47
|
Mid Western:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
1,450
|
1,370
|
1,089
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
80
|
115
|
68
|
North Eastern Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
520
|
899
|
585
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
14
|
16
|
29
|
North Western Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
2,046
|
3,287
|
3,469
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
34
|
51
|
34
|
Southern Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
2,865
|
2,846
|
2,397
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
129
|
136
|
175
|
South Eastern Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
1,779
|
2,610
|
3,471
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
78
|
86
|
77
|
Western Health Board:
|
|
|
|
Number of applications
|
1,788
|
957
|
3,386
|
,,
|
,,
|
places
|
144
|
96
|
180
|