Bursary award for Elaine

A Galway University Hospital staff nurse, Elaine Gaffey, will receive a learning bursary in memory of North Clare woman Anna-May Driscoll Foundation later this month.
Colleagues from Galway University Hospital nominated Elaine Gaffey for the award.
The purpose of the award is to encourage nursing staff to take leadership on their own responsibility over and above the normal call of their duties. It recognises Responsibility Based Leadership taken by nursing staff within University Hospital Galway.
The Foundation was set up to commemorate the work that Anna May Driscoll pioneered in leadership in the corporate and voluntary sectors.
In particular, it promotes the development of the concept of Responsibility Based Leadership, which Anna May devised, together with her partner, Damien Dyar. This concept has been central to enriching the lives of people at work while at the same time improving the performance of their organisations.
A native of Murrough, Ballyvaughan, Anna May left home at 16 to train as a children’s nurse in England. Immediately upon qualifying as a paediatric nurse at St Mary’s, Paddington, she became ward supervisor at the paediatric speciality facility at Princess Louise Hospital, Kensington.
She was instrumental in founding the family planning clinic in Limerick at a time when most methods of family planning were illegal in Ireland.
She led team building and personal development workshops for a number of voluntary organisations, including the Samaritans. She subsequently returned to full-time education and took a degree in Social Psychology at the University of Kent at Canterbury, ­England and later studied for a Masters in Organisational Behaviour at ­Birkbeck College, University of London.
Anna May founded Emerge, an international management consultancy specialising in organisation development. She pioneered its work in leadership and personal effectiveness.
Anna May was under the nursing care of the staff at University College Hospital Galway when she died on June 21, 2007, so it is fitting that the award in her memory should firstly be offered to members of the nursing staff of University Hospitals Galway.