Healthcare Access: Breaking Barriers

Vulnerable people in our society face significant barriers when accessing essential healthcare services. These non-traditional challenges require nurses and midwives to step outside conventional clinical settings and adopt autonomous, flexible roles to ensure that necessary care is delivered.This episode explores how two healthcare professionals are meeting patients where they are, breaking down systemic barriers, and using innovative communication to provide support during pregnancy, substance use, and chronic conditions like epilepsy. The conversation highlights the vital importance of adaptability and relational skills in modern healthcare.1Host Kathyann Barrett is joined by Jess Sears, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Inclusion Health Epilepsy at St James’s Hospital, and Emer Shine, a midwife who runs the Daisy Clinic at The Coombe Hospital, offering support to pregnant people in international protection or homeless services.THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUTEmer’s journey from nurse to midwife.Daisy Clinic: Support for vulnerable pregnant people.Jess's path to inclusion health nursing.Overcoming barriers to public healthcare access.The critical importance of communication skillsGUESTS DETAILSEmer Shine, Clinical Midwife Manager at the Daisy Clinic, The Coombe Hospital. Emer transitioned from general nursing to midwifery and has extensive experience working in addiction services. She is highly skilled in complex patient communication and building long-term trusting relationships with vulnerable women and familiesContact :  Email:[email protected] Sears, Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Inclusion Health Epilepsy, St James’s Hospital. Jess has nearly 20 years of experience supporting vulnerable populations in public health. Her skills include providing specialist, opportunistic expert care and finding creative ways to overcome barriers to medication access and appointmentsContact : linkedin.com/in/jess-sears-5a03b349MORE INFORMATIONNMBI is the statutory body which sets the standards for the education, registration and professional conduct of nurses and midwives. We advise on how nurses and midwives should provide care to patients, their families and society. Our mission is to protect the public and the integrity of the professions of nursing and midwifery through the promotion of high standards of education, training, and professional conduct. We achieve this by providing leadership to registered nurses and midwives to support them to deliver safe care through innovative and proactive professional regulation.  Our functions in safeguarding the public involve establishing and maintaining the Register of Nurses and Midwives. We also establish procedures and criteria for the assessment and registration of nurses and midwives. Visit the Registration section of our website to learn more. Additionally, we set the standards and requirements for nursing and midwifery education programmes. We approve education programmes and further education programmes for the purposes for nurses and midwives. Visit NMBI.ie to learn more. QUOTESIt's the communication part of it, yeah, for me was the biggest thing. -  Emer ShineJust keep chasing Opportunities to learn new things and things that you're excited about. -  Jess SearsYou just need to be there when you say you will be, not making any promises that you can't keep and just do what you say you'll do. -  Jess SearsI think support is the main objective of the days of clinic, and just giving them somebody that they can they can contact if needs be. - Emer ShineKEYWORDS: #InclusionHealth #IrishNursing #MidwiferyCare #HealthcareAccess #VulnerablePopulations