About Me

Dia dhaoibh a chairde, my name is Orlagh Cleary. I am a first year mental health nursing student. I am 23 years old and I have over 2 years experience working in the healthcare sector already, from nursing homes to homecare services. I am also the Mental Health Rep in the Nursing and Midwifery Society! I am running to be your next Convener of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. I feel like there are many improvements to make in this college, and I hope you will trust me to prove I can change these for the better. I have been very active as a class rep this year and really enjoyed being the person my class mates trusted with any issues they have faced. 

What I Will Do 

If elected, there are a few things I would like to do. Some of these include:

Be a strong voice for students: I am very confident in my abilities to get things done. If an issue arises I will do my absolute best to amend it. I think students of this college need a strong convener, someone who will work closely alongside lecturers and the SU Exec team, especially considering the issues that have come up since COVID-19 starting, which I will address in further points.

 More on-campus: I am aware of students missing out on on-campus sessions that would be very important to help us with assignments, exams, and placements. Online learning has benefits, however not everything in healthcare will be carried out efficiently online. I think we can easily attend more frequently, socially distanced, and will be fighting for this come September. 

Placement allowances: Students are entitled to a certain amount of allowance towards travel and accommodation whilst on clinical placements outside of Galway. However with accommodation prices skyrocketting around the country, I will be challenging to college to amend this and provide adequate allowances to these students on unpaid placements. 

Better online supports: We must assume at least a portion of learning will be online for the foreseeable future, so I will be working to make sure every student has received sufficient supports for things such as labs, assignments, etc. as these can be very hard to grasp when online. Extra supports are needed!

Monthly CMNHS social nights for class reps: Whether online or in person, I hope to organize frequent social nights for class reps of this college to get a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of college and work as a rep! 

Go raibh míle maith agat!

Orlagh Cleary

@Orlagh4SU on Twitter and IG!