A Day in the Life of a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Limerick’s Integrated Care Chronic Disease Cardiology Service

By Majella Kennedy, Clinical Nurse Specialist

I work as part of Limerick's Integrated Care Cardiology team, currently based at Croom Primary Care Centre. I love working in this area, delivering specialist cardiac care to patients in the community. Outside of work, I have a busy home life with my husband and three small children. In my spare time, I enjoy hillwalking, socialising, and going to see live music and comedy events.

Working in Integrated Care

Integrated Care is a Sláintecare initiative that delivers care to people in the right place, at the right time, especially those who need it most. I started in this role nearly two years ago, and I feel genuinely privileged to be part of an expanding service that is making real changes to patients’ lives.

My Day-to-Day Role

Our service focuses on caring for people with heart failure, hypertension, and atrial fibrillation. My day is varied, but generally includes taking comprehensive health histories, carrying out physical examinations, analysing blood results, reviewing medications, and making changes as needed. We work closely with, and under the guidance of, our Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Neasa Starr.

I really enjoy health promotion and education as it empowers patients to manage chronic conditions at home and, in many cases, avoid hospital admission. I recently became a registered nurse prescriber, which means I am now the single point of contact for my patients, which makes their care more holistic and convenient.

What I enjoy most

What I enjoy most about my role is seeing positive outcomes and improvements in patients’ conditions first-hand. The feedback we’ve received from patients and their families has been very encouraging. Our service has significantly reduced hospital readmissions for people with heart failure.

Our Team

Our clinical team is composed of a Consultant Cardiologist, three Clinical Nurse Specialists, and a Cardiac Physiologist. Although we’re a small team, we support each other well and we currently manage over 180 cardiac patients.

Current Focus Areas

As a relatively new service, we’re always working to build awareness of what we do. We’re currently focused on gathering patient feedback and carrying out audits to measure our effectiveness.

Looking Ahead

In the future, I’d love to see our service expand further—possibly to include clinics for managing hyperlipidaemia and cardiac risk factors. This would give us a chance to intervene earlier, before heart issues become more serious.

Ends

About Chronic Disease Management Hubs

HSE Mid West received funding to provide two Chronic Disease Management teams for the region—one for Limerick, and an enhanced team for Clare and North Tipperary. These teams support three main programmes focused on:

• cardiovascular disease
• respiratory disease (including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD and asthma)
• Type 2 diabetes

Services are delivered on a hub and spoke basis, as close to patients as possible.

An interim Chronic Disease Hub is currently being built in Limerick, and a permanent hub is under construction in Nenagh. The Ennis Chronic Disease Hub has been in operation for more than two years.