January TCAID: In Focus - Trinity Civic Engagement Awards, Engaged Teaching and Learning Award for 2025 awardee, Dr. Eimear McGlinchey

The Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability is thrilled to share that Dr. Eimear McGlinchey, Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability, has been awarded the Civic Engagement Award for Teaching and Learning for her work in supporting the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities within the School of Nursing and Midwifery nursing programme. The Provost Linda Doyle presented four Civic Engagement Awards to staff at a ceremony on Friday, 6th December 2024. The Awards, sponsored by the Civic Engagement for Societal Impact unit, are for proposed civic engagement projects to take place in 2025.

Dr. McGlinchey’s project is focused on creating resources to support the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities as co-educators and participants in assessments within the intellectual disability nursing program. The project aims to keep people with intellectual disabilities involved in teaching and assessment structures to ensure that the lived experience of people with intellectual disability shape how future nurses learn, enabling empathy, critical thinking and person-centred care skills.

Traditional nursing education has often excluded the direct voices of people with intellectual disabilities, instead presenting their experiences through the interpretative lens of non-disabled educators. This exclusion perpetuates hierarchical structures that marginalise people with an intellectual disability and limits opportunities for students to engage authentically with the lived experiences of the population they are training to support.

Through the award, the team, led by Dr. McGlinchey, will co-develop practical resources, such as classroom guides, training materials, and an assessment framework for Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). These resources will ensure that inclusion is both effective and meaningful, equipping everyone involved with tools to collaborate confidently. Over the course of the project, the team will work closely with people with intellectual disabilities to ensure their expertise shapes every stage. They will also focus on making all materials clear, accessible, and practical for educators, participants, and students.

This will build on the leadership Dr. McGlinchey has shown as the lead of her current models through the engagement of two people with an intellectual disability as paid guest lecturers. However, while this has promoted the voice of lived experience, it remains largely restricted to this one module and participation in OSCEs remains underexplored for this population. Through this award, this work can be expanded for increased inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities within the Nursing and Midwifery Programme, targeting these underexplored areas.

Moreover, these resources will be designed for sharing with others beyond Trinity College Dublin who wish to adopt similar practices. By encouraging wider uptake, the project can contribute to fostering a more inclusive approach to healthcare education across institutions.

The project is supported by members of the intellectual disability nursing team in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ms. Mei Lin Yap, individuals with intellectual disability, and also includes the expertise of AVISTA CLG.

I have been co-lecturing with Eimear in Trinity for the last few years and I feel like I’ve made a difference. Inclusion gives me a voice in training the next generation and this project will help many more people with intellectual disability to be included.

Ms. Mei Lin Yap, Ambassador Liason Officer, TCAID

I’m delighted to collaborate with people with intellectual disability, as their inclusion helps to shape how future nurses learn. Their lived experience are at the heart of empathy and person-centred care.

Dr. Eimear McGlinchey, Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability