During the 1980’s a rationalisation of the Irish health service led to a reduction of funding for voluntary hospitals which in turn resulted in closure of a number of hospitals and an amalgamation of their services. In line with this, it was planned to build a new hospital in Tallaght, Dublin, which would amalgamate the services of the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals and incorporate the paediatric services of the National Children’s hospital and the acute psychiatric services of St Loman’s hospital. Planning for the new hospital began as far back as 1981 with the establishment of the Tallaght University Hospital Board and building began in 1993.

With a view to the move to the new hospital there was increasing co-operation between the nursing services and Schools of Nursing throughout the 1990’s. This included the integration of nursing staff prior to the move whereby nurses moved and worked in similar clinical areas within the hospitals due to be amalgamated. It must be remembered that the move to Tallaght was a carefully planned and extremely smooth running operation thanks, in a large part, to the huge effort from staff. All of their hard work paid off and it continues to the present day.

On Sunday June 21st 1998 the move became a reality and the Hospital opened. The philosophy of the nursing service which was developed is to meet the individual healthcare needs of patients and to deliver the highest quality of patient care in order to improve both clinical outcomes and the quality of life.

Since moving to Tallaght the Nursing Service provided at the Hospital aims to create, maintain and continuously develop a centre of excellence for Nursing in the Hospital. We promote, protect and improve health by providing a caring and holistic approach based on knowledge and skills in partnership with patients and their families and other healthcare professionals.  We provide an integrated structure which is conducive to the provision of high quality nursing care as well as the opportunity for the professional growth and development of each individual Nurse. This is achieved through the effective use of resources and equity access to, and participation in, education and research programmes.

Since our move we have continued to develop in order to achieve our aims and deliver a quality nursing service to our patients. There has been a continued development of our nursing roles and services and further information on our activities and developments can be found in our Annual Reports.

Concurrently demands on the service have continued to increase and other demands such as the Health Strategy, increases in our population and a rapidly changing healthcare service have prompted the need for a more diverse service delivery. With increased demands Nursing in the Hospital have responded by diversifying to meet the challenges of these demands and the needs of our patients. We recognised that we need to continue to respond to these opportunities and challenges.

All in all the Tallaght University Hospital Nursing service continues to be at the forefront of nursing development in the 21st Century.

As we go forward we will continue to strive to create, maintain and continuously develop a centre of excellence for Nursing in the Hospital. In addition we will continue to facilitate and provide a clinical learning environment for nurses and students in order to support the attainment of knowledge and skills and in turn provide an evidence based quality nursing service to our patients.

As evident from the history of our nursing service, from 1859 to the present day, we are born out of a tradition of nursing excellence in the delivery of nursing care which keeps the patient at the centre of all of our endeavours. We will, in the future, in all of our endeavours, developments and activities continue with this tradition. in addition in keeping with our aims there are many major national initiatives which we will embrace for the betterment of our patient care delivery.