WITH Leaving Certificate students across the county preparing for the next stage of their lives, they would do well to listen to the advice of one Ennis-based woman who certainly knows a thing or two about studying.
Christina Larkin has become the first Doctor of Nursing to graduate from University College Dublin. As she says herself, she was “a very average student” while in secondary school; however, at 46, she has gone on to graduate with the highest educational honour.
Dr Larkin hopes that by sharing her story, it will show people that there are many ways of achieving what you want and that it is never too late to follow your dreams.
“I am also quite excited to be speaking about my study at the Horatio Congress for European Psychiatric Nurses in the Faroe Islands in May. I have become a member of the European Violence in Psychiatry Research Group so I am looking forward to meeting other researchers in this area, making connections and plans for collaborative working across Europe,” she said.
Growing up in Kilkee, Dr Larkin went to school in the convent. She began her nursing studies at just 16 in England, living and working in the UK, before returning home to Clare in 2001 and settling in Ennis.
She recalled, “I was a fairly average student in school and went for my interview for nursing to get a day off school. I had a great English teacher, Mrs Hurley, and so I wanted to be an English teacher also. However, once I passed the interview for nursing, there was no going back – lucky for me, I loved it from the first day I started.
Her decision to undertake the doctorate was heavily influenced by the recession at the time. “I was sick of the negativity at work, in the news and in life in general. I figured the doctorate would give me some focus and it definitely did that. My life changed over the four years, in that I really learned what I am capable of. There were moments where I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish, as well as moments where I was flying high, loving it. It was a humbling experience in that I was hugely reliant on my family, especially my parents, and work colleagues to keep me focused.
Dr Larkin’s research for her doctorate centres on the role that nurses in charge of acute mental health units can have in preventing and managing aggression.
“Unfortunately, aggression is something that happens on a fairly regular basis in healthcare internationally and there is a large body of research around the causes and management of aggression in acute mental health units. My study aimed to address a gap in the current research to explore the role played by the nurse, who is in charge of these units on a daily basis, in preventing and managing aggression.
Dr Larkin is also hopeful that her work will help inspire others, not just in nursing but in all walks of life, as they look to the future.
“You don’t have to be a genius to do a doctorate, but I would advise you to study something you are passionate about; otherwise, when the going gets tough, you won’t last.