The time it takes to train as a children's nurse will be shortened by at least a year, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, indicated yesterday following the publication of the independent report into the death of two-year-old Róisín Ruddle.
The child died in July 2003 within hours of her scheduled heart operation being postponed by Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin.
The operation was postponed due to a shortage of intensive care nurses to look after her following surgery.
The report said the hospital's difficulties in recruiting such specialist nurses began in 1996 after a change in the way nurses were trained. Before that, school leavers could opt to train as paediatric nurses but a system was introduced whereby they had to first spend four years training as general nurses, followed by 18 months paediatric nurse training. After that, it takes another 18 months training to qualify as a paediatric intensive care nurse.
Ms Harney said yesterday she hoped a new direct entry paediatric nurse training programme would start in third-level colleges next year.
Furthermore, she indicated remuneration for these specialist nurses would be looked at. At present even if a general nurse has been working many years and decides to go back and train as a paediatric nurse, he or she will revert to receiving a basic nurse's salary.
"Many people weren't interested in pursuing paediatric nursing perhaps because of the length of time, and indeed the remuneration issues," she said.
The Tánaiste added that lessons had to be learnt from "this dreadful tragedy that shouldn't have happened".
While the report said the girl's treatment was appropriate, it also said her chances of survival would have been greater had she had her planned operation on June 30th, 2003.
Ms Harney admitted the Department of Health was aware of nursing shortages for years but pointed out the shortages were a worldwide problem.
Notwithstanding this, she said efforts had to be made to source paediatric intensive care nurses from places like India and Poland to make sure the ICU unit in Crumlin, the only one in the State for children after heart surgery, was available to all who required it. Some €2 million had been set aside this year for overseas nurse recruitment, she said.
If there were enough nurses in Crumlin the child would have had her operation and "this unfortunate death need not have happened. That is the tragedy and we need to learn from that", she said.
She added that she had to "minimise the possibility of it ever happening again" but admitted, "you can never say there won't be tragedies in healthcare unfortunately".
Meanwhile, the former minister for health, Mr Martin, who ordered the report into the child's death, claimed he did everything he could as minister to increase the number of nurse training places and to provide additional resources to Crumlin.
However, he said that that was no consolation to the Ruddle family. "It's not acceptable that a child should die in these circumstances and for that I obviously would have great regret for what happened."