HFH Team

Mary Bowen

Operations Manager

Prior to joining the Irish Hospice Foundation, Mary was National Programme Manager for the Marie Curie Delivering Choice Programme in the UK, a programme to redesign NHS, voluntary and social services to enable more people to be cared for and die in their place of choice at no extra cost. She has also worked in the Healthcare Commission in England, supporting the development and roll out of the Annual Health Check - a system to regulate and assess healthcare organisations' performance. Earlier in her career Mary gained experienced in the European Commission's Health and Consumer Protection Cabinet, notably working on the limiting of tobacco advertising across the EU.

Mary has a background in nursing with acute surgical and medical experience in Ireland and Australia and she has also worked in drug rehabilitation and diabetes research.

Lorna Peelo-Kilroe

National Practice Development Coordinator (HSE & HFH Programme)

Lorna joined the team in 2009 to assist hospitals to build capacity in person-centred facilitation and practice development (PD) in care at end of life. Prior to this Lorna worked as regional PD facilitator in the NMPDU West (Mid West). Before joining the HFH team Lorna was involved in implementing a national practice development programme in residential care settings. Lorna has over 25 years experience in nursing and worked both in the UK and Ireland in primary, secondary and acute care settings. She worked on various national projects including the UK pilot nurse prescribing initiative, health care assistant pilot programme and the Hanley Report. Lorna brings over ten years experience in PD and facilitation work to the HFH team. She completed a an MSc in Trinity College, a PD Development Programme with Royal College of Nursing (UK) and a Post Graduation Facilitation Programme with the University of Ulster.

Bryan Nolan

Communications Coordinator

Bryan joined Beaumont Hospital in 1993 from the Rotunda hospital where he had been chaplain from 1987 to 1993. Bryan Nolan became Head Chaplain at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin in 1994.

As Head Chaplain in Beaumont, he coordinated pastoral care in the hospital, managing an inter-denominational team of chaplains and 180 lay volunteers. He was a member of the multidisciplinary team, the critical incident stress management team, and of the staff care team. He was an accredited team member for Palliative Care and I.C.U.

He was involved in the formation of policy with regard to death, dying and breaking bad news, and the education of student and post-graduate nurses on care of the dying and their relatives. His role also involved the planning of post- bereavement courses and parent support days and services.

He has a Masters in Health Care Chaplaincy from D.C.U. and has trained as an addiction therapist with the N.C.E.A., Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin.

Aoife O'Neill

Dublin Community Hospitals Network Coordinator

Aoife O’Neill graduated from U.C.D in 1986 with B. Soc. Sc. degree. She worked in research until 1988 until starting work at the National Multiple Sclerosis Care Centre. In 1993 Aoife returned to college and completed a Masters degree in Social Science. Since 1995 she has worked as a social worker in the areas of child protection learning disability and adult mental health in both hospital and community settings.

Joanne Carr

Development Coordinator, South-East Hospitals

Joanne Carr qualified as a physiotherapist from Sheffield Hallam University in 1997. During the early part of her career she specialised in the care of patients with neurological problems. In 2001 Joanne began working in the specialist field of neuro-oncology at the Christie Hospital cancer treatment centre in Manchester. Throughout this time Joanne developed her keen interest in the care and management of terminally ill patients and contributed to the development and implementation of local and regional multidisciplinary policies, practices and procedures to ensure the highest level of care for patients. At a national level Joanne represented the ‘allied health professions’ as a member of the guidance development group for the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence’s ‘Improving outcomes for patients with central nervous system tumours’. This document sets out key recommendations and service standards for this particular patient population.

Joanne holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care and lectures at the RCSI school of physiotherapy in the areas of oncology and palliative care.

Joanne is the co-author of a chapter regarding the care of patients with malignant spinal cord compression in a complementary therapy textbook published in 2006 and is the lead author for the ‘neuro-oncology’ chapter of a cancer rehabilitation textbook due for publication later this year.

Joanne relocated to Ireland at the start of 2006 where to take up the post of Senior Oncology Physiotherapist at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

Mary Friel

Development Coordinator, North-West Hospitals

Mary qualified as a registered general nurse in Liverpool, UK in 1990, she then completed a degree in Organisation and Management at Lancaster University while working in Intensive Care in the UK. In 1994 she returned to Ireland where she completed a course in Intensive Care Nursing while working in the Mater Hospital Dublin. While working as unit manager in the ICU in Letterkenny General Hospital Mary co-ordinated post graduate courses in Intensive Care Nursing and undertook further studies in leadership, communication and practice development. She has worked on a variety of projects with the NMPDU, North West Hospitals and Colleges.

In 2006 Mary completed a Masters in Health Care Management at Trinity College Dublin. She joined the HFH Programme in May 2009.

Fran McGovern

Development Coordinator, Beaumont & Blanchardstown

Fran trained as a general and midwifery nurse in Dublin’s Richmond and Rotunda hospitals from 1970-75. Until 1981 she was a staff nurse in the Intensive Therapy Unit and Day Ward at Richmond Hospital. After seven years caring for her young family, Fran returned to Beaumont Hospital in 1988 as staff nurse in the Emergency Department. She also completed a Family Planning Course and an introduction to Palliative Care at Our Lady's Hospice, in Harold’s Cross, Dublin. Fran had previously worked there as a cadet nurse in the summer of 1968. For several years she was involved with the Critical Incident Stress Management group at Beaumont Hospital. In 1996 she completed the Accident and Emergency Certificate course. Fran set up the Nurse Liaison post in the ED in 1998. This aimed to improve communications between the ED, GPs and the community services. Fran was also involved in the orientation of new staff to the ED and in the bereavement training programme for staff. In 2004, she completed the Higher Diploma in Health Care Risk Management.

Nuala Harney

Development Support

Nuala Harmey was a senior social worker at the Childrens University Hospital Temple St for many years with a special interest in bereavement. She is now bereavement coordinator at that hospital with a focus on staff training and support in the area of bereavement.

Nuala was a member of Dr Deirdre Maddens working group which produced a report on post mortems in 2006 and was a member of Michaela Willis’ audit team the findings of which were published by the HSE in 2009. She is currently a member of the HSE group working on a National Code of Practice for Post Mortem Services.

Nuala teaches on the Irish Hospice Foundation certificate course on Children and loss and on the H.Dip in Bereavement.
Since 2009 she has been a special advisor to the HFH Programme providing development support.

Bettina Korn

End-of-Life Care Project Coordinator, St. James’s Hospital

Bettina qualified as a General Registered Nurse in 1995 in Dortmund, Germany. She moved to Dublin in 1996 and has worked here in a variety of health care settings. Bettina gained a BSc in Nursing (RCSI) in 2001, HDip in Adult Respiratory Nursing Care (RCSI) in 2003 and MSc in Nursing with Trinity College in 2009. She has worked in the area of Respiratory Care for over ten years and in particular as a Respiratory Clinical Nurse Specialist at St. James’s Hospital since 2004, where she was part of a successful Respiratory Outreach Programme. Palliation in non-malignant lung disease has been a longstanding area of interest to Bettina. In both her dissertations for the HDip and the MSc Bettina focussed on the area of chronic disease and palliative care in COPD. In her clinical work Bettina piloted a palliative care component to an existing Respiratory Outreach Programme, which is now integral part of the programme. Bettina is one of the lead investigators on the Action Research Project on Advanced Respiratory Disease and Palliative Care funded by the Irish Hospice Foundation with support from the Department of Health and Children. Her longstanding interest in the area of palliative and end-of-life care has lead Bettina to join the HfH Programme as the programme coordinator for St. James’s Hospital in April 2011.

Diarmuid Ó Coimín

End-of-life Care Coordinator, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital

Prior to his appointment to the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme, Diarmuid had worked as a Social Worker in the Mater Hospital for ten years. For the majority of this time he worked in the emergency department and for a two year period in the specialist palliative care team. Over the ten year period he developed his keen interest in service provision related to persons diagnosed with life limiting illness and issues related to improving patient care for persons experiencing domestic violence and homelessness. Diarmuid was a member of the Mater’s Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team for a number of years having completed a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing course in 2003.

Diarmuid has a Masters qualification in Social Work from University College Dublin (1999) and completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Bereavement Studies run by the Irish Hospice Foundation in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 2005.

Diarmuid joined the team as End-of-Life Care Coordinator for the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in June 2010.

Grace O'Sullivan

Programme Administrator & Development Support

Grace is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth & Queens University, Belfast. Grace is based at the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme office in Dublin.

Prior to joining the HFH team Grace worked in the Policy Development Department at the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council where she was involved in a number of conflict transformation projects. Grace also worked for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission where she was involved in promoting the proposals for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland and was also involved in an investigation into the rights of older people living in nursing homes in Northern Ireland.

In 2007 Grace graduated from the Washington Ireland Programme for Service and Leadership.

Grace joined the HFH Programme in March 2010

David Walsh

Project Manager. Pathfinder, Cork

Prior to this appointment David worked for the Mercy University Hospital in various roles of Project Management,before being appointed Director of Development which was later to include the implementation of the Hospitals Stategy. These positions included Major Capital Building Projects, the introduction of new Medical Services, new Technology, Reconfiguration in HSE South, while all the time developing links with other Hospitals, the Community and UCC.

David's role as Pathfinder Project Manager with the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme has three components:

To develop and manage a pathfinder project whose purpose is to enable more people die in or closer to their homes and to reduce the numbers of people dying in Acute Hospitals.
To facilitate the development of a network of care providers in home, hospice and hospital environment - including nursing homes.
To support the work of acute and community hospitals in Cork City and County who are already working to become hospice friedly hospitals.

David joined the team in August 2011.

Miriam McCarthy

End-of-Life Care Coordinator, Mid-Western Regional Hospital

Miriam qualified as a physiotherapist from University College Dublin in 1999. She gained experience in a wide variety of specialities during her early career working in Ireland and Australia. She became a Senior Physiotherapist in Adult Cystic Fibrosis (CF)/HDU in MWRH, Limerick where she was involved in developing both in-patient and out-patient services for adult CF patients. She presented a poster on pulmonary rehabilitation for CF patients at the European CF Conference in Crete in 2005 and was involved in establishing a national physiotherapy special interest group. She is a Pilates instructor and obtained a Higher Diploma in Musculoskeletal Medicine from RSCI in 2003; this expertise has been of enormous benefit in her clinical career.

Miriam was appointed a Senior Physiotherapist in Primary Care (PCCC) in Limerick in 2007 where she worked in both clinical and service developmental roles, facilitating multi-disciplinary team clinical meetings, outreach exercise programmes and a demand management project. She has been involved in student education, supporting undergraduate physiotherapy students on placement. Miriam completed her Masters in Health Care Management in 2009.

Miriam joined the HFH Programme in January 2011 and is based in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.