Claire leads child palliative care research

THE recent establishment of a new education and research department at the first Children’s Hospice in Ireland is being led by a Tiermaclane woman.

The new LauraLynn House reaches its first birthday on September 27. Claire O’Dwyer-Quinn from Tiermaclane, Ballyea, will oversee the development of a research and education centre within the LauraLynn National Children’s Hospice to help nurses and other healthcare professionals understand and improve care for children and families who are living with life-limiting illnesses.

 

Many of these children require specialised palliative respite care or in-patient hospice care at the end of their life. Claire currently leads the nursing programme on children’s palliative care at NUI, Galway and has extensive clinical, educational and research backgrounds in general nursing and children’s palliative care.

Claire and her own family previously experienced local  and national paediatric palliative care service provision and she subsequently went on to combine this personal experience with further clinical, masters and current PhD academic studies in the field.

The LauraLynn Children’s Hospice is involved in several national research projects in partnership with the HSE and other academic centres with an aim to publish findings and support further collaboration with existing local stakeholders, who already provide services to life-limited children and families.

Claire said the ongoing development of education and research in Irish children’s palliative care holds many possibilities.

“I am so excited to be involved with the LauraLynn Hospice. It is such a happy place to be, a place to receive care of a really high calibre, tailored to the individual needs of children, their parents, brothers and sisters. Importantly for healthcare staff, this new national children’s hospice will also offer training and education facilities all underpinned by substantive research in the area of children’s palliative care.

“As a new department within the LauraLynn Hospice, we aim to support, encourage and develop the existing goodwill and motivation from all Irish healthcare professionals and academics who work in this speciality.

“We wish to enhance the existing structures within local disability services, paediatric units and hospice home care teams to foster greater collaboration for children with life-limiting illnesses.

“Good quality research looking at what children and parents want, combined with competent and skilled staff, will help ensure better care for all Irish children, whether at home, in hospital or in a children’s hospice. Professionals who work in this field already know there is no second chance to ‘get it right’ for children and families,’ she said.

Claire can be contacted at CQuinn@csh.ie, at 01 2893151 or at 087 9330825.