Transition Year

Mondello Park Early Drive Experience

As a part of our TY experience we visited Mondello Park in Kildare. While there we completed the Early Drive experience and also got a tour of the Martin Birrane Collection as well as visiting the stewards room.

Early Drive

Mondello Park offers an Early Drive experience in which 13-17 year olds can get their first driving experience around the Mondello Park Circuit. Young drivers are given a crash course in driving and parking, while also experiencing the thrill of driving around a race track. When we drove the Opel Corsa E, most of the cars had 60kmph cruise control although some did not… My car did not have this on, during some parts of my laps I went as far up to 80kph as I was focusing on the apex of the corner. There were 4 per car and each got parking practice and 8 laps around the Circuit. We were instructed to keep to the left side of the track but at times I found myself instinctively taking the faster racing line on the right. Aside from the on track experience we were also given a mock theory test to complete as a group and had a reaction time competition.

Martin Birrane Collection

After our track time we were given a tour of the Martin Birrane Collection, the Martin Birrane Collection is a museum of lots of different race cars from various different series, some cars that were there included: the Benetton B186 which won the team's first F1 Grand Prix in Mexico 1986, Sir Jackie Stewert’s Lola T92 from the 1967 Indy 500, the 94 Lola IndyCar which was driven by Nigel Mansel, and the Jordan 194 which was driven by Eddie Irvine. Most of the cars are worth well into the millions. It was amazing to see such machinery and how it has changed over the years.

Mental Health Nursing

Day One:

In March of this year nine transition year students from Drimnagh Castle took part in the Mental Health Nursing course, held in Cherry Orchard Hospital in West Dublin. This exciting new project ran from 10.00 a.m. to 3.45 p.m. for two days. On the morning of our first day, during orientation we were given some presents of t water bottles,stress balls, a banana and a granola bar. We were based in a lecture hall which was the location of many talks and presentations. After a general introduction to what we would be doing on both days , we received an introductory lecture on mental health and what it is and the different types of mental disorders and illnesses such as anxiety, ADHD, OCD etc. Later we learned about the pathway from secondary school to university programs for students interested in a career in mental health nursing and nursing in general. That afternoon we went to a really fascinating and empowering lecture on Mental health in children and adolescents .

Day Two:

The second day of the programme was more practical. We did things such as first aid where we practiced CPR on dummies and learned how to apply the AED which is a defibrillator. We also did Naso-Gastric Feeding which is putting a feeding tube up the nose until it reaches the stomach. This is used to feed patients who might not be able to eat or might struggle eating. This was part of a wider introduction to general nursing and what the role of a nurse incorporates. Later in the day we learned how to take blood pressure, how to read the monitor and how to check a pulse. To finish off our lessons we did urinalysis which is taking urine samples, intramuscular injections and how to use an AED. At the end of the day we were presented with our certificates.

Summary:

Overall I really enjoyed the mental health nursing program. I found it really interesting and informative especially since science is one of my favorite subjects. I loved doing the clinical skills because it was really good being able to put what we learned into practice. I really enjoyed this course and would definitely recommend it to next year's TY’s.

By Max Carolan

The National College of Ireland

By Liam Farrell

Throughout transition year we have done many activities. One being the YSD or also known as Youth Sustainable Development. In this group, we are beginning to talk about sustainable development of the world and how we can improve it for future generations. Two of my classmates and I: Liam and Charlie, attended YSD in October. It was quite nerve racking for the first time as I felt like it would be awkward meeting new people and starting conversations.

To my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I imagined. I believe that the first day actually helped my social skills a bit. Our first activity was to introduce ourselves. We said our names and our interests. I got to converse with the other students and tried to make as best of a first impression as possible. Our second activity was to start and create a board filled with rules and guidelines we should follow during the assessment as this will be going on until the new year. We wrote up our opinions and respect was a common answer amongst most of us. We also saw “to have fun” frequently so we added that towards the list. By the end of the activity we created a poster that incorporated all of these rules accompanied with drawings and silly doodles.

For my first impressions of the group, I thought it would be really nice for my future and to try to help my social skills. I thought this would also help with my ability to create projects and brainstorm for future ones as well. The people in the group were actually welcoming and were quite friendly. I have great hopes and standards of what's to come out of this course.

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