Midwifery Practice Placements
Practice Placement is a fundamental part of a student's learning experience in becoming a qualified nurse or midwife. During your studies, you will participate in practice placements in a variety of healthcare settings gaining real-world experience and honing skills like communication, critical thinking and decision making. Midwifery students at UCD will have the opportunity to obtain placements at the hospitals listed below.
Practice Placement is a fundamental part of a student's learning experience in becoming a qualified nurse or midwife. During your studies, you will participate in practice placements in a variety of healthcare settings gaining real-world experience and honing skills like communication, critical thinking and decision making. Midwifery students at UCD will have the opportunity to obtain placements at the hospitals listed below.
National Maternity Hospital
Established over 130 years ago, the National Maternity Hospital, commonly referred to as Holles St. Dublin, is part of the Ireland East Hospital Group (IEHG). It is one of the largest maternity hospitals in Ireland and one of Europe’s leading providers of maternity and women’s healthcare services. Their multidisciplinary team provides the highest standard of care to women and their families through a range of services including maternity, women’s health and neonatology.
In 1998, the National Maternity Hospital established a community midwifery service, offering domino birth, early transfer home programmes and homebirth. This service covers Dublin and North Wicklow and continues to be the busiest community midwifery service in Ireland.
In partnership with UCD, the National Maternity Hospital strives to provide high standards of professional education, training and professional conduct for students attending practice placements. Currently, the hospital provides practice placements for BSc Midwifery students, Higher Diploma Midwifery students, General and Children’s & General Nursing students and Public Health Nursing students attending maternity care practice placements.
Wexford General Hospital
Wexford General Hospital is an acute General Hospital in the South East serving a population of over 145,000. The hospital operates an Emergency Department, acute medical assessment unit, day care unit, cardiac services, oncology, medical, surgical and paediatric services and a busy maternity which employs seven Consultant Obstetricians. Maternity services include ambulatory gynae, an early pregnancy assessment unit, DOMINO service, maternity outpatient clinics, a fetal assessment unit, scanning department, a combined Antenatal/Postnatal ward and delivery suite.
Wexford General's combined Antenatal/Postnatal ward has a capacity of 26 beds with five private rooms and a bereavement suite. The Delivery suite is a modern, purpose built delivery ward consisting of six delivery rooms and two assessment rooms with a dedicated theatre. The birthing pool was installed in 2021 and has been recently upgraded to a ‘Home from Home room’.
The Maternity Unit provides audited placement allocations to facilitate clinical learning to BSc Midwifery Students, Public Health Nursing Students and Children & General Nursing Students from UCD. The hospital’s dedicated, on-site Clinical Placement Coordinator arranges all placements in conjunction with UCD.
Regional Hospital Mullingar
Originally established in 1936, the Regional Hospital Mullingar provides a range of services for Longford, Westmeath and the surrounding counties. The hospital’s Vision is 'Quality in Patient Care' and Mission is 'To Improve the Health and Quality of Life of the Individuals and Communities we Serve'.
The maternity unit, named the Herbert Amon Unit, opened in 2017 and is divided into three different wards: Antenatal, Labour and Postnatal. The Antenatal Ward offers 14 beds and provides care and support to woman experiences various gynaecological issues. The Labour Ward has four birthing rooms and an admission room which provides triage services, one to one care, home from home birthing and high dependency care. Finally the Postnatal Ward consists of 26 beds and offers routine postnatal care, postnatal physiotherapy and transitional care for newborns. The Danu Suite also offers families a homely, less clinical space to use during their stay on the ward.
The hospital offers a range of placement opportunities to UCD students studying both Midwifery and Children’s & General Nursing. Additional facilities in the pipeline include opening a bereavement suite, hydrotherapy pool and the introduction of an ambulatory gynae service.
St. Luke's General Hospital
St. Luke’s General Hospital, Kilkenny is a Level 3 Acute Hospital inclusive of maternity services. It services Counties Carlow and Kilkenny and is part of the Ireland East Hospital Group (IEHG). The vision of St. Luke’s General Hospital Maternity Department is to provide safe, evidence-based care in partnership with the woman, delivered with compassion, kindness and respect.
The Maternity Unit delivers approximately 1400 babies per year and provides a range of antenatal, intrapartum, postnatal and Special Care for babies in the area. Facilities include a 24 bedded unit providing antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care, Special Care Baby Unit with seven cots providing care to babies over 34 week’s gestation, four delivery/ labour ward beds with a 24 hour epidural service and theatre suites.
Other services available include outreach antenatal clinics, Integrated Community Midwifery Service (ICMS), antenatal education classes, early pregnancy assessment, ultrasound services, fetal assessment, antenatal and postnatal obstetrics as well as specialist services including perinatal mental health, bereavement and infant feeding led by Clinical Midwife Specialists within the department.
As an academic partner with UCD St. Luke's General Hospital offers placement opportunities for Midwifery, General and Children's & General Nursing students.