Education of children's nurses in Ireland: an update.

The first teaching hospital for sick children in Great Britain and Ireland opened in Dublin in 1821. From then, the development of sick children's nursing in Ireland followed a similar path to that in many other countries until a national report in 2000 recognised that post-registration pathways alone were unlikely to meet future health service needs for suitably qualified and flexible children's nurses. In 2006, a four-and-a-half-year integrated children's and general nursing pre-registration degree programme started on four sites.