My Working Day: Raphaela Kane, lecturer and director of academic services at DCU's school of nursing, enjoys the variety of her working life.
Being a lecturer and the director of academic practice at DCU's school of nursing means I wear many hats in my job. And it means no two days are the same, which I love.
My working day starts at home in the morning, doing the usual "mumsy" things: checking the homework and doing the school lunch. My 11-year-old can walk to school and I try to balance the week so some mornings I am home for that, and other mornings he goes to a friend's and I go to work early. Then a big part of my day is battling with the M50.
When I get to work, the day involves a variety of different experiences and juggling several balls in the air.
The director of academic practice is a very new role. It's about deliberately integrating research, education and practice, but in an academic setting. And we have recently established the Healthy Living Centre here in the School of Nursing to provide health services to people in the local community, both internal and external to the university.
We'll be launching the counselling and psychotherapy service in the next few weeks. Then there are several other initiatives planned in occupational health, early intervention for people with dementia and health needs assessment for people with intellectual disabilities.
The centre enables the academics to transfer what they are doing in education and research into practice, and vice versa. The key is not to replicate what is already out there and neither is it to compete with existing health services, but to look at where the gaps are and to provide, both on our own and in partnership with other health service providers, the opportunities to develop these particular areas.
That's a very new departure in academic terms and requires a chief executive-like role, which is about the operational management of a health service. That's my role.
As a lecturer I am also developing a national programme for nurses about managing long-term illness. These courses are very new and are being delivered in education centres around the State so that means I travel quite a bit.
I am also completing a doctorate, looking at issues around self-harm, particularly at the experience of people in the A&E setting because A&E nursing is my background. But 25 years ago, when I was working as a nurse, this is certainly not what I thought I would end up doing. It's a classic example of the range of experiences and opportunities you can have with nursing.
The biggest challenge at the moment is that I need to do more desk work. My role involves writing papers and documents and policies, but I also need to be out and about every day meeting people and often doing a lot of travelling, making the contacts and developing the links.
But the variety is the best part, and the opportunity to take some things that are very new forward. It's always exciting but it brings with it its own challenges, tackling traditions and boundaries that may have existed over time. But you put the hard hat on for that.
And I really like to have fun. I try to have a good laugh on every working day. You wouldn't get through it otherwise.