Outstanding Clinician Award: Daragh Rodger

Daragh Rodger is the 2025 recipient of the Outstanding Clinician Award for her commitment to lifelong learning and her dedication to a patient-centred approach to the care of older persons. Read Daragh's story below.

I have always loved learning and throughout my career I seized as many opportunities as possible to upskill and expand my knowledge base.

I completed my initial training in the UK in the late 1980s. At the time the apprenticeship model was the preferred approach to nurse training. It was structured so that I received a lot of hands-on learning opportunities in the wards with a lot less time in the classroom.

My husband, Andrew, who is also a nurse, had similar training but, he decided to return to college to complete his diploma and degree. At the time, I combined rearing my family while I was working part-time in a nursing home, which I loved.

Between watching Andrew complete his degree and my practical experience in the nursing home, I very quickly realised I would also like a further qualification and to specialise in the care of older persons, so I enrolled in the Diploma in Gerontological Nursing at RCSI in 1994. It was a very fulfilling experience, and I was struck by how many of my colleagues had that thirst to keep learning.

In 1996, a year after completing my diploma, I started working in St Mary’s Hospital in the Phoenix Park, where I have remained since. Over the years, I’ve availed myself of every chance that I could to learn more, completing a Diploma in Tissue Viability Wound Management with RCSI before undertaking a one-year degree programme with UCD in 2006.

At that point in my career, I had been promoted to Clinical Nurse Specialist in Health Promotion and Assessment of the Older Adult. A lot of the focus was on falls prevention and bone health in older adults. I saw the need for a nurse-led healthy ageing clinic that would include osteoporosis screening and DEXA scanning, which commenced in 2006 providing health promotion and bone health screening to adults in Dublin North Central area.

It was at this time I realised that if I wanted to progress further and move to the level of advanced nurse practitioner, I would need a master’s degree. So, I returned to RCSI and hit the books again before graduating with an MSc in Nursing in 2009. Since then, I’ve been delighted also to complete a Certificate in Nurse Prescribing in 2010 and a Certificate in Advanced Practice in 2011, both of which I completed with RCSI.

Throughout all of my further education and qualifications, I’ve felt hugely supported by my colleagues in St Mary’s Hospital, including past Directors of Nursing – Breda Hayes and Mary Flanagan. They were so dynamic and progressive in their outlook and encouraged the whole ethos of further education. I feel so grateful for the support that I received that I have tried also to support and encourage other nursing colleagues.

I’ve been involved in setting up showcases of nursing, conferences and meetings – where staff share insights based upon their qualifications and their work. I always try to make time for colleagues who might be exploring new career choices or different education pathways.

Over the course of my career, I have seen a large number of nurses committed to continued learning, upskilling and deepening their knowledge. It is this drive and determination by dedicated individuals that has really led to developments within the nursing profession such as the evolution of the Clinical Nurse Specialist and Advanced Nurse Practitioner roles. Seeing that is inspiring and makes me very glad to be part of this profession.

Getting creative

One of the aspects of my work that I enjoy is educating others on the different aspects of healthy active ageing and well-being. It has provided me with an opportunity to think outside the box and get creative.

I’m very proud of my work on the Forever Autumn falls prevention programme, which I project led and worked on in collaboration with Anne Spencer an Educational Technologist. The concept was developed to look at how we could reduce and prevent the number of falls occurring in St Mary’s Hospital, while also raising awareness of the potential for falls in older adults in our care.

We wanted to ensure people can move around the home to remain active, but we were also conscious that there needed to be an extra level of surveillance available within the setting to ensure movement is appropriately managed. The Forever Autumn Falls programme allows staff to monitor from a distance while providing a level of independence for our residents.

The programme was piloted in St. Mary’s in 2012 and seen falls reduced by 33%in the first year and the reduction in falls was sustained since then. In 2016 it was nominated for and won an award in the Irish Healthcare Awards for best falls prevention initiative. Over the years the programme was introduced in the community nursing homes in Donegal and other nursing homes nationally and most recently it was adopted by other community nursing homes in Dublin North.

Valuing the older person

I feel very grateful for the opportunities I have had to work with and care for older persons. Their generation have paved the way for us and they remain an important part of our society – I am very proud that I can help to someway repay them for all that they have done, to provide them care, ensure that they are safe and ensure they experience a good quality of life.

I think there is often a tendency to focus on the challenges facing older persons – socially, physically, mentally. This narrative probably adds to the sense of fear of ageing. However, the work that Professor Roseanne Kenny has done through The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) study shows that people are at their happiest in their 70s.

They are retired, have time to enjoy their life, reap the rewards of their hard work, and see their children and grandchildren thrive. In this regard, an aspect of my work that I enjoy is creating awareness around the actions and initiatives that can help people to make the most of this time of life – from health and well-being, staying well, exercise programmes to social opportunities. Genuinely we cannot start thinking about our later years too early – a lot of what people do in their 30s, 40s and 50s, from exercise to nutrition to getting involved in the community, impacts upon the quality of life they will experience in their 70s and 80s.

I often get frustrated about the lack of age-awareness in society. Housing is obviously a hot topic in Ireland at the moment but where within the planning is consideration given to incorporating two-bedroom houses or bungalows into new housing schemes that are being constructed? The media and politicians speak about older people needing to down-size, but right now there is nowhere for them to down-size to!

The other challenge I’d love to see addressed is better access to primary healthcare. It is so hard to get a GP appointment in a timely manner at the moment and that is one of the contributing factors that older people end up in the hospital – a setting that they don’t want to be in mainly because they want to be treated at home but also because of their perception that they are in the way – a perception that is part due to media narrative.

Proving quality care

In recent months there has also been negativity in the press about nursing homes. A key fact is less than 5% of our older adult population reside in nursing homes – about 34,000 people. I think it has been an eye-opener as people begin to question how large businesses have been profiting from their care. It has really drawn attention to the standards of care and the importance of having qualified staff providing quality person-centred care.

The Department of Health has been working on this as part of phase 3 of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in residential care settings. I’m very keen to see that report published sooner rather than later. Within that I’d like to see a baseline of educational qualifications required to ensure that nursing home staff have the appropriate skills and knowledge to provide safe quality care.

That said, there is evidence of really fantastic staff working very hard in nursing homes presently. The National Frailty Education Programme continues to be delivered and a lot of staff from nursing homes who attend these are keen to learn and to gain new knowledge. I also believe that the families of the residents are partners in caregiving and that should be embraced more.

Ultimately, we all have a role to play in making sure we look after our older adult population and continue to recognise them as valued members of our families, communities and society as a whole.