‘The patient is the focus’: Multi award-winning nurse graduates from University of Limerick

An award-winning University of Limerick nursing graduate has said his chosen career “is more than just a job, it is a vocation”.

Maurice Lynch from Croom, County Limerick was conferred with an MSc in Nursing from University of Limerick’s Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, among the 3,500 students graduating this week.

He was awarded a First-Class Honours degree and his thesis focused on the subject of Rapid Response Team Interventions on Post-Operative Patients.

Twenty-five-year-old Maurice, who split his time between his MSc and his job as a staff nurse in the surgical ward of University Hospital Limerick (UHL), was recently awarded for his exemplary teamwork and professionalism by his colleagues at UHL.

“It’s nice to get recognition amongst your professional peers, it means you’re doing something right. It highlights the teamwork aspect of the multidisciplinary team. There will always be difficulties working in the hospital with overcrowding and lack of beds but it’s that teamwork that pulls us through the difficult times.”

Presented each summer by the Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors, Maurice was one of six nurses to receive this award in 2022, and one of three nurses in 2023.

Speaking ahead of his graduation, Maurice shared why he chose UL for both his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Nursing.

“I’d highly recommend UL for studying nursing in terms of facilities, course structure and quality of teaching. UL’s Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery is filled with cutting edge resources, such as the clinical skills labs which replicate a four-bed hospital ward. Here students get hands-on practical experience using the likes of nasogastric tubes and catheterisation. This was very beneficial ahead of going on hospital placement.

“The humanitarian and personable side of nursing is often lost between the amount of courses and training you have to do. It was definitely never lost amongst the training in UL.”

UL’s BSc in Nursing (General) includes practice placements throughout the UL Hospital group in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary North.

“The overall course structure works out around two years in college and two years in the field, so in UL you get the best of academic and practical experience,” explained Maurice.

Maurice said his lecturers had an open-door policy to provide advice when needed.

“The lecturers are very supportive, both academically and personally. They created a good atmosphere to learn and grow as a person, as many of us were going from being a 17-year-old out of secondary school, to developing into a nurse as well as an adult, and entering the real world of work for the first time.”

Graduates from the BSc in Nursing programme can pursue further study in nursing or healthcare including the MSc Perioperative Nursing, MSc Palliative Care, and MSc Advanced Practice. Maurice continued his studies through the MSc in Nursing which has a broader focus.

“I chose Intercultural Care, Primary and Community Care, and Leadership as my elective modules. These subjects have proven to be invaluable in my day-to-day work in University Hospital Limerick.”

While the ratio of male to female nurses is still low, Maurice has never found this to be an issue.

“We are in the minority, but we’re holding our own in the field - it shouldn’t be seen as a divide, I don’t think it is. Nurses work as part of a multidisciplinary team alongside healthcare assistants, doctors, pharmacists and other hospital staff. It’s never been a big deal – everyone works together regardless of gender. The patient is the main focus. That’s the way I’ve always seen it.”

Maurice emphasised how a career in nursing holds many opportunities.

“Nowadays, there are so many options to progress as a nurse specialist, an advanced nurse practitioner, or a clinical nurse manager,” he explained.

“There are also a multitude of careers in the community coming up as part of the government’s Sláintecare initiative. And there are always research developments in the field of nursing, it’s one of those careers where there is so much scope.”

Above all, for Maurice, it is the humanitarian side of the job that he finds most rewarding. 

“You go into work, and you see people going through difficult times and you have that capability as a nurse to change how they are experiencing things and make it that bit easier for them by caring for them or just talking to them.

“As a career in general it is something you won’t ever regret doing – it is the commitment to something more than just a job, it is a vocation.”