The HSE’s mental health services in the Waterford area are currently hosting placements of students from University College Cork’s School of Medicine.
Clinical placements in hospitals generally begin in the third year of the undergraduate program. After this initial period of clinical immersion, students typically continue with placements in the fourth and final years, with increasing specialisation and exposure to different medical and surgical areas before their graduation.
University College Cork (UCC) includes psychiatry within its medical curriculum and requires students to complete placements in a range of clinical settings, including psychiatric settings. The Department of Psychiatry at UCC is also involved in research and clinical practice that facilitate such placements.
Marking the beginning of a three week psychiatry placement/rotation, where medical students will become further acquainted with delivery of general adult and psychiatry of later life services in the Waterford area, Dr. Vwoke Akpubi (Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director of the HSE’s Waterford/Wexford mental health services) said:
“Staff at all levels of the HSE locally are looking forward to this cooperative venture with UCC and I appreciate how generous my colleagues are with their time in doing so.”
“Since its foundation in 1849, the School of Medicine in UCC has had and a long tradition of teaching, research and scholarship. Its doctors of the future are provided with a student-centred and evidence-based medical education, informed by societal needs.”
“Being a UCC graduate myself, it is especially meaningful for me to see its School of Medicine and the HSE Dublin and South East region’s mental health services in Waterford working together in this way. We are delighted to welcome the students and to provide them with a stimulating and supportive learning environment, rich clinical exposure and excellent training facilities. I hope this experience will be both rewarding and inspiring, and perhaps even spark an interest in a future career in psychiatry.”
“I look forward to this being the beginning of a strong and lasting partnership between UCC and the Waterford/ Wexford mental health services in education, training, research and further collaboration in the years ahead.”
During their placements in Waterford, the UCC medical students will spend time at Aidan’s Unit for Psychiatry of Later Life and Continuing Mental Health Care in the Waterford Residential Care Centre, the Dept. of Psychiatry acute mental health inpatient facility on the grounds of University Hospital Waterford and with Community Mental Health Teams based in the Ferrybank, Tramore and Waterford (John’s Hill) Primary Care Centres.
Last updated on: 03 / 09 / 2025
