DkIT To Organise a Public Health Fair To Celebrate Role Of Nurses & Midwives

10 February 2020

The Health Fair is open to the general public as part of the Institute’s support for the WHO 2020 ‘The International Year of the Nurse and Midwife’ initiative.

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) is organising a health and wellbeing day for adults of all ages at its campus on Saturday 15th February from 10am-2pm. The event is free-to-attend and is coordinated by trained nurses, midwives and academics from DkIT’s Department of Nursing, Midwifery & Early Years. It includes a variety of public health talks, check-ups and demonstrations relating to topics such as cancer care, healthy bones, infection control, mental wellness, heart health, ageing well and becoming a mother.

The health awareness day has been designed to provide members of the general public with an opportunity to meet one-to-one with health professionals and academics and to learn more about personal health and wellbeing issues. Visitors will be able to get their blood pressure and blood sugars checked by trained healthcare professionals and learn the life-saving skill of CPR through the Hands for Life, Irish Heart Foundation programme. There will be also be a variety of interactive stands and demonstrations from organisations such as National Cancer Care programme, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, The Louth Hospital, Dundalk, Maire Keating Foundation, Irish Skin Foundation, Happy Bones, among others.

The event has been organised as part of the 2020 celebrations for the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife which was established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in honour of the bicentenary of the birth of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. DkIT will be organising a full calendar of events as part of the year-long celebration and Saturday’s Public Health Fair is the first outreach event open to the public.

Speaking today, Dr Myles Hackett, Head of Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Early Years said,

“We are delighted to launch our International Year of the Nurse and Midwife celebrations with our first ever public health fair. DkIT is deeply committed to the concept of ‘healthcare for all’ and we recognise that nurses and midwives are the backbones of every health system. Through our public health fair we hope to provide people with useful knowledge and advice about staying healthy and staying alert to changes in our body. We will have a variety of experienced and highly trained nurses and midwives on hand to discuss their specialist areas and provide answers to questions our visitors may have. We warmly invite everyone interested to attend!”

Also speaking today, Aine McHugh, Nursing Lecturer at DkIT and lead coordinator of the DkIT Public Health Fair added,

“We have designed a detailed programme of public health awareness activities which relate to a variety of everyday healthcare issues from mental health, maternal health, cancer care, healthy heart and bone health issues. We are inviting anyone from the general public who wishes to speak to a nurse or midwife or be more knowledgeable about their personal health to come along. The fair is suitable for secondary school pupils, parents, older people, pregnant women, men and everyone in between. For more information about the fair please visit www.dkit.ie/public-health-fair”

As the leading higher education provider in the North East region, DkIT has been educating nurses and midwives since the late 1990’s. It currently provides four undergraduate honours degree programmes in General Nursing, Intellectual Disability Nursing, Mental Health Nursing and Midwifery, in addition to full range of postgraduate part-time courses in this area. To date, the institute has supported the creation of more than 1,400 graduate nurses and over 160 graduate midwives. Graduates from the Department are working in the health service locally in Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan as well as nationally and internationally serving those communities in the hospital and community setting.

To find out more about DkIT’s full calender of events in celebration of the WHO International Year of the Nurse and Midwife and the Public Health Fair please visit: www.dkit.ie/year-of-nurse-and-midwife

For more information, please contact aine.mchugh@dkit.ie