Free Webinars for Transition Year, 5th and 6th Year Students
30th January, 1st and 7th February 2024
09.15–11:00
The annual webinar about careers in Health for Transition Year and Leaving Certificate (Year 5 & Year 6) students is taking place on three separate dates:
30th January, 1st February and 7th February 2024.
9.15am to 11am
This is hosted jointly by the Health Sciences Academy in conjunction with the Limerick and Clare Education & Training Board, and supported by the Limerick Education Support Centre.
Over 17 thousand students from all over Ireland attended last year's event.
The live webinar is focused on students in post-primary schools and aims to provide information on careers and programmes of study in health.
Given the extremely busy nature of hospital settings, we understand that Transition Year students cannot come to hospitals or other clinical settings for work experience or tours, and so we have designed this event to be as informative and interactive as possible, showcasing healthcare as an option for further study and careers.
Register now here: Health Careers website and register HERE
Sarah Oakley, Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing for Social Inclusion, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
Sarah is a general nurse and a midwife who has worked as a public health nurse since 2001 in the community in Limerick.
In 2019, Sarah became the Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing for Social Inclusion covering Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
Eleanor Keogh, Project Worker, Integrated Alcohol Service, Midwest Community Healthcare.
Eleanor has worked within the health service for 15 years as a health care assistant. She started this journey in the Opiode Subsitution Treatment Centre in the Mid-West and is currently working as a project worker in the new Integrated Alcohol Service.
John Stephenson, Chief Respiratory Physiologist, UL Hospitals Group.
John has been working as a Respiratory Physiologist for 24 years. John's goal is to build Respiratory Diagnostics in the ULH Group to provide a World Class Service for patients.
Olwen Kennedy, Occupational Therapist, HSE Mid-West Drug and Alcohol Service.
Olwen is a member of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland (AOTI) and AOTI Homeless Advisory Group.
Olwen is a Graduate of MSc Occupational Therapy (PQ) at the University of Limerick, prior to commencing the MSc. OT, Olwen completed a BSc Sport and Exercise Sciences also at the University of Limerick.
With previous experience in mental health, disability and stroke rehabilitation, Olwen's current role in the Mid-West Drug and Alcohol Service has brought new challenges and with that requires a novel skill set, informed by principles of recovery, trauma informed practice and occupational justice.
Martin Sayers, Senior Pharmacist, Limerick Drug and Alcohol Service.
Martin holds a degree in Pharmacy from Trinity College Dublin, a Masters in Medical Statistics from LSHTM, and a H. Dip in IT from Sligo IT.
Martin has experience in hospital pharmacy, wholesale operations, and community pharmacy, he is committed to optimizing pharmaceutical care in addiction services.
Eileen Crowley Senior Occupational Therapist, children’s disability services, Mid West Community, HSE
Eileen qualified with a Master’s in Occupational Therapy in 2009 from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
Eileen has worked as an OT both internationally and within Ireland since qualifying in 2009.
Dr. Eoin Harte, Senior Educational and Child Psychologist, Treehouse Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT), St. Gabriel’s Foundation.
Eoin works as a Senior Psychologist with one of the Children’s Disability Network Teams in Limerick City. As part of this role, Eoin provides psychological services to children and teenagers with complex needs arising from a disability in collaboration with their families and support networks (e.g., school staff).
Eoin completed his professional psychology training at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick City having previously worked as a teacher.
Clare Lynch, Children’s Disability Social Worker, Mid-West Community, HSE.
Clare qualified as a Social Worker seven years ago and has worked in many areas and age groups. Clare is currently working as a Children’s Disability Social Worker in North Tipperary CDNT.
Clare's role includes supporting children and their families to identify needs and offer emotional and practical supports. Social work enables Clare to work in partnership with parents, forming relationships and it offers a lovely flexible way of working as each day can be different. Clare listens to parents’ stories and experiences. Clare supports people on a daily basis and feels honoured to be able to do this and feel like she makes a difference.
Annemarie Minogue, Senior Physiotherapist, Integrated Care Team for Older Persons, St. Joseph's Hospital, Ennis, Co. Clare.
Annemarie graduated with a Certificate in Applied Physiology and Health Science from IT Carlow in 2001 and went on to graduate with a BSc in Physiotherapy from Keele University, Staffordshire, UK in 2004.
Annemarie currently works as a Senior Physiotherapist on the Integrated Care Programme for Older Persons, Clare and also as Clinical Coordinator for the East Clare Community Health Network.
Sarah Hannan, CORU Registered Dietitian, UL Hospitals Group, University Hospital Limerick.
Sarah is a staff-grade dietitian at University Hospital Limerick. She studied Human Nutrition and Dietetics in Technological University Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.
Sarah currently works in stroke and general medicine and previously has worked in paediatrics, Cystic Fibrosis and maternity care.
Ruth McGuiness, Human Resources General Manager, UL Hospitals Group, HSE.
Ruth is the HR General Manager for UL Hospitals Group. She has a responsibility for supporting the Director of HR in providing HR Services to over 5,700 staff across a single hospital system spread across 5 Hospital sites.
Ruth began her career in Financial Services sector in Dublin, spent some time working and teaching in the Education sector prior to moving to Limerick and taking up a role Medical Manpower Unit in HR in the Mid-Western Health Board. After a number of subsequent roles, open to new challenges, eager to progress and learn new skills, Ruth was successfully appointed as eHealth Business Manager in 2014. Passionate about the necessity and value-add of HR to an organisation in terms of supporting and empowering staff, Ruth delightedly rejoined the HR team in 2019 as Business Manager to the Director of HR and in 2021 was subsequently appointed to her current HR General Manager role.
Ruth has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics & Sociology and Politics from University of Galway, a Postgraduate Higher Diploma in Business Studies from University of Galway, a Masters in Human Resource Management from University of Limerick and an Advanced Diploma in Applied Employment Law from King’s Inns College, Dublin. Ruth is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Dara Walsh, MsC, Biomedical Communicator, University of Limerick & UL Hospitals Group.
Much of Dara's time is spent creating medical illustrations, animations, and videos to explain complex medical and surgical procedures.
Dara has been creating surgical educational tools for medical, nursing, surgical trainees and healthcare workers since 2012. In this time, he has gained clinical experience, and a thorough knowledge of anatomy and clinical procedures and practices. In his role he manages the AV/IT, research, training and simulation office within University Hospital Limerick. Dara introduces students and trainees to surgical instruments and facilitates access to surgical simulators and the Robotic Surgery Simulators.
He is involved in clinical video recording, editing, live streaming, the archiving of surgical procedures for educational purposes, tele medicine, medical illustration for education and remote monitoring/teaching.
Dara is also involved in surgical simulation and the robotic surgical program at UHL.
Dr. Patrick O’Donnell, MB BCh BAO MICGP MSc PhD, Associate Professor of General Practice, School of Medicine, University of Limerick.
Dr Patrick O’Donnell is a General Practitioner with HSE Social Inclusion in CHO3 and Associate Professor of General Practice at the University of Limerick School of Medicine who specialises in inclusion health. He graduated from medicine at UCD in 2006 and completed the Sligo Specialist Training Scheme in General Practice in 2012. He holds a Masters Degree in Global Health from Trinity College Dublin and is a member of the Irish College of General Practitioners.
Patrick's main research interests are social exclusion, health equity, homelessness, addiction and the provision of healthcare to people from marginalised groups. In 2022 he completed his PhD and an associated body of research on social exclusion and health at UL. He is involved in the education and training of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the healthcare professions at UL and around the country on topics relating to inclusion health.
Patrick is a member of the HSE national Naloxone Quality Assurance Group and the Health Research Board National Mental Health Research Strategy Expert Group. He joined the School of Medicine at UL in 2013 on a project that included the goal of establishing low-threshold inclusion health clinics in Limerick city for people who could not access mainstream health services. These clinics have now expanded and become core HSE services, which Dr O'Donnell runs with a multidisciplinary team from Social Inclusion in CHO3.
David Frawley, Chief Financial Officer of UL Hospitals Group.
UL Hospitals Group is made up of the 6 acute hospitals in the HSE Mid-West region with a budget of €525 million and a workforce of over 5500 staff.
David joined the HSE in January 2007 as the Financial Accountant for the Mid-West region and since then, has worked in a number of Finance roles, primarily in the UL Hospitals group which he joined in 2013. In addition to financial management roles, he has led out on a number of significant projects for the Hospital Group in recent years including the establishment of one of the first dedicated Health & Wellbeing Centers for HSE staff in the country.
Prior to joining the HSE, David worked for Dell Ireland for period of two years as a Cost Accountant in its Services division and previously spent eight years working in various parts of the UK and Ireland for Microsoft Limited.
In addition to working as a Sales and Pricing Analyst for the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office commercial division in the UK, David was also the Europe Finance Manager for the first-generation Xbox after its launch in 2002.
David is a graduate of the University of Limerick and has a Bachelor of Business Studies Degree. He is a qualified accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) since 2001.