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(Occupational Health Practitioner, Workplace Health Nurse, Occupational Health Advisor, Employee Health Nurse)
Health & Social Care
Salary
€52,000 - €85,000/yr
Level
Senior
Outlook
Growing
Sector
Health & Social Care
As an Occupational Health Nurse you are responsible for protecting and promoting the health and wellbeing of employees across a wide range of industries and workplaces. Your daily work involves conducting health surveillance assessments, managing return-to-work programmes for employees recovering from illness or injury, and advising employers on how to reduce occupational health risks. You work closely with HR teams, line managers, safety officers, physiotherapists, and occupational physicians to develop and implement workplace health policies. You may also carry out pre-employment medicals, monitor employees exposed to hazardous substances or noise, and provide confidential health advice and referrals to individual workers.
Listen: a day as an Occupational Health Nurse
You arrive at the occupational health unit of a large pharmaceutical manufacturing site in County Cork at 7.45 a.m., fifteen minutes before your first appointment. You check your diary on the occupational health management system and see a full morning: three health surveillance assessments, a return-to-work interview, and a pre-employment medical. You pull up the relevant employee files, confirm consent forms are in order, and lay out the audiometry and spirometry equipment — both need calibrating before use. At 8.00 a.m. your first employee arrives for routine noise surveillance. You conduct a pure-tone audiometry test, record the results against last year's baseline on the HSE occupational health database, and note a slight shift in one frequency. You document this carefully and flag it for review by the occupational physician later in the week. Explaining your findings to the worker plainly, without causing unnecessary alarm, takes patience and clear language.
You must first qualify as a registered general nurse, typically via an NFQ Level 8 Bachelor of Science in Nursing offered at universities such as UCD, UCC, TCD, University of Galway, UL, DCU, and several technological universities, with registration required through NMBI (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland). After gaining several years of clinical nursing experience, you then undertake a specialist postgraduate qualification in occupational health nursing, typically an NFQ Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma or MSc in Occupational Health Nursing, available at institutions such as RCSI or UCD. Leaving Certificate subjects that strengthen your application to nursing include Biology, Chemistry, and Maths at Higher level, as well as English and a language, to meet CAO entry requirements for nursing programmes. Some nurses enter occupational health after building experience in areas such as emergency, respiratory, or community nursing before specialising. NMBI registration must be maintained throughout your career, and continuing professional development (CPD) is expected to remain current in occupational health practice.
Most occupational health nurses begin their careers in general nursing, building clinical expertise over several years before completing a postgraduate occupational health qualification and transitioning into the specialty. Early roles in occupational health typically involve working in an in-house company health unit or with an occupational health service provider, carrying out health surveillance and supporting absence management. With experience you can progress to senior occupational health nurse or occupational health manager roles, taking responsibility for whole-organisation health strategies and managing small clinical teams. Some experienced practitioners move into consultancy, policy development with the HSA (Health and Safety Authority), or academic and teaching roles in occupational health nursing.
AI-assisted tools are beginning to support occupational health nursing through automated health surveillance tracking, early identification of absence patterns, and digital platforms for managing return-to-work cases. Predictive analytics can flag employees at risk of work-related ill health, enabling earlier intervention and more targeted health promotion. However, the clinical judgement, therapeutic relationship, and ethical reasoning at the core of occupational health nursing cannot be replicated by AI, meaning the nurse's role remains central. Occupational health nurses who engage with digital health technologies and data tools will be well positioned as the profession evolves.
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4 year • Health & Social Care
Postgraduate2 year • Health & Social Care
Bachelor4 year • Health & Social Care
Bachelor4 year • Health & Social Care
Postgraduate2 year • Health & Social Care
Organisations in Ireland that employ people in this occupation.
Nationwide
Provides occupational health services to HSE staff nationwide.
Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick
Dedicated occupational health provider serving public and private sectors.
Dublin and Nationwide
Delivers workplace health surveillance and employee wellbeing programmes.
Leixlip, Co. Kildare
Supports large manufacturing workforce with on-site occupational health services.
Nationwide
Manages health surveillance and return-to-work for Garda personnel.
Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin
Provides occupational health support to large airport operations workforce.
Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork; Grange Castle, Dublin
Monitors employee health in pharmaceutical manufacturing environments.
Nationwide
Delivers occupational health assessments and fitness-for-duty evaluations.
Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin
Supports cabin crew and ground staff with occupational health programmes.
Dublin and Nationwide
Provides health surveillance for staff in high-risk utility environments.
Clonmel, Co. Tipperary; Galway
Manages occupational health risks in medical device manufacturing facilities.
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