MGH appoints cardiac nurse specialist
MAIREAD BECOMES THE THIRD NURSE IN IRELAND TO HOLD THE ROLE
MANAGEMENT at Mallow General Hospital (MGH) have this week announced the appointment of the facility’s first Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) in Heart Failure.
Mairead Lehane, who has worked at the MGH since 2001, has become just the third ANP to be appointed to a heart failure post anywhere in the country and will be based at the hospital’s heart failure clinic.
A vastly experienced medical professional, Mairead completed her general nurse training at the Cork University Hospital (CUH) in 1994 before going on to complete a Diploma in High-Dependency Nursing and a Higher Diploma in Coronary Care nursing while working at London’s Charing Cross and St Mary’s Hospital’s.
Since joining the MGH as a clinical nurse specialist she has pioneered a range of innovations there including a cardiac rehabilitation service, the establishment of the North Cork Cardiac Support Group and a dedicated heart failure clinic.
She has since graduated with first-class honours in Nurse Prescribing, won an innovation award to develop a complex behavioural intervention and graduated with a Masters degree from University College Cork and PG Cert. Advanced Practice.
Mairead is also a co-founding member of the Irish Association of Heart Failure Nurses, a member of the executive committee of the Irish Nurses Cardiovascular Association and is currently one of five Irish nurses collaborating with heart failure nurse leaders in the UK, Scotland and Wales to research the impact of Covid-19 on heart failure service delivery.
Prior to her new appointment, Mairead completed 500 hours of supervised clinical training practice at the CUH.
As an ANP working in the heart failure clinic, Mairead will work with the cardiology teams based in MGH and CUH to deliver a hub and spoke model of heart failure care.
Patients will receive heart failure care in CUH (the Hub) and then access out-patient heart failure treatment locally in MGH (the Spoke).
MGH general manager Claire Crowley described Mairead’s appointment as “significant”, given the fact that she is just the third ANP to work in the cardiac field in Ireland.
“The heart failure clinic has been operating in the hospital since 2013, and internationally, heart failure clinics have a profound impact on mortality rates and hospital avoidance. Against the backdrop of an aging population and an increase in chronic disease, Mairead’s new role is responsive to the government policy of Sláintecare, bringing care closer to the patients,” said Ms Crowley.