IAANMP members’ news and updates

RANP Sarah Hickey wins the Dr David Thomas Award 2025

Congratulations to RANP Sarah Hickey of MTU Cork Medical Centre, winner of the prestigious Dr David Thomas Award 2025 for outstanding contribution to third-level student health. Sarah is one of 24 RANPs currently working in primary care (GPANP) across Ireland. She holds the distinction of being the first RANP in third-level student health in Ireland, and also the first RANP to specialise in student sexual health.

MTU Cork students are fortunate to benefit from Sarah’s exceptional care and professionalism, as she consistently delivers the highest standard of patient-centered healthcare. Her outstanding contributions to advanced nursing practice and third-level student health, make her a very worthy winner of the Dr David Thomas Award 2025.

Sarah’s award-winning nomination
Nominators:
1. Theresa Lowry Lehnen, Nurse at SETU Carlow Medical Centre;
2. Eilish Corley, Nurse at ATU Sligo Student Health Centre;
3. Gemma Doolan, Nurse at MTU Cork Medical Centre;
4. Dr Aileen Scullion, GP at MTU Cork Medical Centre;
5. Dr Caroline Faul, GP at MTU Cork Medical Centre;
6. Keith Ricken, Student Services Manager at MTU Cork;
7. Shannon O’Donovan, Medical Administrator at MTU Cork Medical Centre.

We would like to nominate Sarah Hickey, RANP and university nurse at MTU Cork, for the Dr David Thomas Award 2025. Sarah qualified as a Registered General Nurse (RGN) in 2001 after completing her training at Beaumont Hospital and Dublin City University. She gained extensive experience working in both the public and private healthcare sectors as a staff nurse and clinical nurse manager before joining the student medical centre at MTU Cork in 2017.

In 2018, Sarah completed the HSE Foundation Programme in Sexual Health Promotion and in 2019 she earned a Postgraduate Certificate in Sexual Health Advising from Staffordshire University. In 2020 she completed the Nurse Prescribing Course (RNP) at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) receiving a distinction.

Sarah further advanced her education, completing a Master’s in Nursing and a Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Practice at University College Cork in 2023 and 2024, respectively, receiving distinctions in both.

Sarah is a RANP accredited by the NMBI, representing the highest level of clinical expertise and professional recognition in nursing. She is one of only 24 RANPs currently working in primary care across Ireland, highlighting the advanced skill set required for this role.

She holds the distinction of being the first RANP in third-level student health and also the first RANP to specialise in student sexual health. Sarah is also an active member of the Cork Sexual Health Network and the Society for the Study of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Ireland.

ANPs practice at a higher level of capability as independent, autonomous, and expert practitioners. They have acquired the competencies of senior decision-makers that can undertake comprehensive advanced assessments of patients with complex and multiple healthcare needs.

RANPs can prescribe medication, order diagnostic tests, and interpret the results of multiple different assessments and investigations to make a diagnosis, and deliver complete episodes of care. This makes a real impact on many of the key challenges in student health and demonstrates the potential of advanced nursing practice and nurse prescribing in primary care.

In clinical practice Sarah is in high demand and always goes the extra mile. She delivers minor illness, minor injury, sexual health and contraception, diagnostics, phlebotomy, immunisations, wound management, nurse prescribing, social prescribing services, and health promotion initiatives.

Sarah carries out clinical audits and evaluation, research, develops practice protocols, and designs, implements, and delivers health promotion interventions and workshops in student health. An active social prescriber, she also provides students with non-medical sources of support and interventions to improve their physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing.

Sarah has set out a business plan and hopes to develop a fully nurse-led sexual health/STI screening service for students at MTU Cork, with RANP complete episodes of care from assessment, examination, diagnosis, treatment/nurse prescribing and follow up, including partner notification and sexual health advice, as well as delivering a contraception service.

Sarah is highly regarded by both students and staff at MTU Cork, as well as by her colleagues in the Irish Student Health Association (ISHA) nationwide. An active and dedicated member of ISHA, she has served on its committee for many years, contributing her expertise and commitment to advancing student health services.

MTU Cork students are fortunate to benefit from Sarah’s exceptional care and professionalism, as she consistently delivers the highest standard of patient-centred healthcare. Her outstanding contributions to nursing and third level student health make her a truly deserving candidate and a worthy winner of the Dr David Thomas Award 2025.

Quotes from nominators
“Sarah exemplifies the very best of advanced nursing practice – her clinical expertise, dedication, and pioneering work in student sexual health have greatly enhanced the quality of care available to third-level students. As the first RANP in third-level student/sexual health and a trailblazer in her field, her impact is both profound and far-reaching.

Sarah has been a true inspiration to me, always generous in sharing her knowledge and expertise to support and advance others. Her unwavering commitment to excellence, innovation, and patient-centred care makes her a truly deserving recipient of the Dr David Thomas Award 2025.”
Theresa Lowry Lehnen, Nurse at SETU Carlow Medical Centre

“Sarah has boldly gone where no student health nurse has gone before! She is the first ANP in student health, which is an exciting and innovative addition to our student healthcare service that will truly benefit our students.

What better contribution to student health can there be than to advocate for a progression pathway for your fellow nurses. Sarah’s display of leadership, enthusiasm, and vision makes her so worthy of this award. Thank you, Sarah, for making history and inspiring your colleagues to follow in your footsteps!”
Eilish Corley, Nurse at ATU Sligo Student Health Centre

“We at MTU Student Health Centre are delighted to nominate Nurse Sarah Hickey for the Dr David Thomas Award in recognition of her achievement of RANP. From the outset of joining MTU in 2017 Sarah has shown a strong interest and commitment to student health issues.

“Her decision to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Sexual Health Advising, the Nurse Prescribing Course and Advanced Nursing Practice has already enhanced and enriched  the health service being provided particularly in her area of keen interest, student sexual health.

“We are very proud of her achievement and wish her continued success. We feel that she is a very worthy candidate for this award. Sarah continues to pave the way for career progression within the student health sector. She deserves every acknowledgment for all her achievements and accomplishments.”
Gemma Doolan, Nurse at MTU Cork Medical Centre; Dr Aileen Scullion, GP at MTU Cork Medical Centre; Dr Caroline Faul, GP at MTU Cork Medical Centre; Keith Ricken, Student Services Manager at MTU Cork; Shannon O’Donovan, Medical Administrator at MTU Cork

KEEPCARING information sheet

KEEPCARING is an EU-funded project (grant #101137244) examining burnout and resilience among hospital-based doctors and nurses. It is a collaboration between surgical doctors, nursing federations, SMEs, and academic researchers that aims to (re-)build the wellbeing and resilience of doctors and nurses in EU hospitals to promote onboarding as well as staying in the workplace by systematically researching factors and signals of job stress and novel mitigating solutions to prevent burnout among (aspirant) healthcare professionals on an individual, team, and organisational level. The project has 20 different partners across 11 European countries, with multiple hospital sites.

For more details contact stephen.gallagher@ul.ie.

Meet the members – Orla Loftus Moran, GP RANP

My name is Orla Loftus Moran. I have spent the past 29 years working as a nurse in general practice, and for the last eight years I have been practising as a RANP within this setting, based in a rural practice in Knock, Co Mayo.

When I first began working in general practice in 1996, there were no roadmaps for nurses like me. The role of the general practice nurse (GPN) was undefined, unsupported, and largely invisible in the broader healthcare conversation. There were few opportunities for professional development or education.

But despite those challenges, I saw something powerful – person-centred care delivered close to home, grounded in trust, continuity, and community. So, I stayed, driven by a belief that this work mattered, even if systems did not yet know how to count it. I also saw the growing potential for nurses working to the top of their scope in general practice.

For me, becoming an ANP was a natural progression from my role as GPN, but not one that came with a pre-written job description. I evolved the role deliberately and cautiously, responding to patient needs, service demands, and expanding my professional competencies as educational opportunities arose. I wanted to build something sustainable and credible, anchored in team-based care, professional integrity, and responsiveness to real-world practice.

Today, I work as an ANP within a highly collaborative team. Reflective of the generalist nature of our role, I provide clinical care across a continuum of health needs, including chronic disease management, health promotion, women’s health, screening, and management of acute presentations.

The GP ANP role brings added autonomy and the ability to manage clinical complexity. These competencies are built directly on years of experience, education, continuous professional development, and the solid foundations laid during my time as a generalist GPN.

General practice and primary care are now central to healthcare delivery and reform. National policy, through Sláintecare and the roll-out of the Enhanced Community Care programme supports integrated, person-centered services delivered close to home.¹

Yet despite these advances, the role of the GPN remains under-researched, inconsistently defined, and too often siloed from broader healthcare conversations.^2,3 A recent UK report by Sonnet Impact found that nursing in general practice is “essential to the sustainability of general practice”, yet these contributions are not always recognised in system-wide reform.⁴ It is a pattern mirrored here in Ireland, and it must change.

This growing awareness, combined with years of clinical reflection, peer conversations, and policy engagement led me to research. I am currently undertaking a PhD at University College Dublin, supported by the Judith Chavasse Scholarship.

My research focuses on developing nurse-sensitive quality care metrics tailored to general practice nursing. Working in partnership with nurses, GPs, administrative staff, and patients, I hope to co-create a meaningful suite of metrics that captures the quality of care and services nurses bring to general practice – and ultimately, strengthens the visibility and articulation of the role.

Too often, nurses working in general practice settings are left out of national workforce planning and policy discussions, not because their work lacks value, but because that value has not been made visible.

My research is grounded in action research (AR) and appreciative inquiry (AI), two methodological approaches that align closely with my values as a clinician. These frameworks reject the idea of detached observation. Instead, they promote collaboration, inclusion, and action. AR is rooted in a pragmatic and critical tradition that sees knowledge as something created through doing, questioning, and improving practice.

AI, with its constructivist and strengths-based lens, emphasises what is working and builds change through curiosity, dialogue, and shared vision. Both approaches honour the lived experience of everyday practice and invite those closest to the issue as collaborators and co-creators in the research. They reflect how I have always worked; with intention, accountability, and a belief in people and possibility.

As we look ahead, we must support and expand the presence of ANPs in general practice. This is not about hierarchy or superiority, it is about complementarity. ANPs bring decision-making capacity, clinical depth, and leadership into general practice teams. The ICN has identified ANPs as a key workforce solution to address GP shortages and alleviate the workload pressures threatening the sustainability of primary care.⁵

In the context of Ireland’s growing ambition to deliver universal health coverage, ANPs have a unique role to play in ensuring accessible, high-quality care for all. We must invest in research, education, and leadership development across the full continuum of nursing roles in primary care, from generalist to advanced. This is not just a matter of workforce planning, it is a matter of creating integrated, team-based care that reflects the needs of communities.

To do this, we need to build bridges, not silos. We must foster mutual understanding between nurses in all roles and settings and support each other’s growth with generosity and respect. Nurses are more than caregivers, we are leaders, educators, researchers, and change-makers.

I believe we are also innovative enablers of system transformation. My journey from novice to RANP to PhD researcher was not planned, but it has been shaped by purpose, practice, and the belief that meaningful change comes from within.

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