Boost for nursing education as college develops €15m facility

A NEW €15 million nurse education facility at Waterford Institute of Technology will provide training for almost 500 nurses and midwives and offer those in the sector an opportunity to upskill.

The Department of Nursing building will allow the college enrol 460 students on degree courses in general, psychiatric and mental handicap nursing from 2005, Environment Minister Martin Cullen announced yesterday as he turned the sod on the facility.

The building is being funded by the Department of Health and Children. The programmes it will offer will be developed in line with recommendations made in the report of the Commission on Nursing in 1998.