The School of Nursing and Midwifery at NUI Galway and The School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Sciences at University College Dublin are delighted to announce a new Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences (Children’s Palliative / Complex Care). This new programme is designed for nurses currently registered in Ireland, working with children and adolescents with complex or life limiting conditions. The programme aims to provide students with the necessary in-depth evidence based knowledge, skills and competencies to provide quality care to highly dependent children and young people as they live with life-limiting and complex illness.

The programme is a ground breaking collaborative effort between the National University of Ireland Galway and University College Dublin and is offered full-time over two academic years and part-time over three academic years. On completion of the six modules in year 1 (full-time) or year 2 (part-time) students have the option of being awarded a Postgraduate Diploma or (if they have achieved the minimum 60% average mark across these modules) may progress onto the next year to complete the MSc programme at NUI Galway.

It consists of both theoretical and clinical components. A blended learning approach is adopted in the delivery of this programme. Students are required to attend face to face workshops for a total of 12 days across the programme. Students are required to complete a minimum of 1,000 clinical hours before completing this programme.

Special Features
The course has a dedicated clinical focus, offering opportunities to develop specialist skills in children’s palliative and complex care. The programme is offered through a blended learning format – a combination of online and face-to-face learning and teaching. Blended learning is an innovative and flexible approach to learning, making it possible to combine working full-time with studying. This course is currently undergoing approval by The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.

As part of the programme, every student will be expected to undertake specialist children’s palliative care / complex care placements. The programme will commence in early September (subject to approval).

National University of Ireland, Galway
NUI, Galway continues to be ranked in the top 2% of universities worldwide for the quality of our teaching and research. The overarching purpose of the school is to develop and promote appropriate education and research in the domains of nursing and midwifery. Since 2008, NUI Galway has pioneered post graduate studies in children’s palliative care, and to date over 200 Irish nurses have undertaken further studies in the specialty. This year we are proud to announce that in response to ensuring an educated and competent nursing workforce, the School of Nursing and Midwifery NUI Galway in collaboration with our partners at UCD, have designed a new dynamic PGD/MSc specifically dedicated to children’s palliative /complex care. This programme will commence in September 2016 and will be the first Irish programme to award a PGD/ MSc in Health Sciences (Children’s Palliative / Complex Care).

Claire Quinn
Claire Quinn is the lecturer and the Programme Lead for the new PGD/ MSc in Health Sciences (Children’s Palliative Care) Claire has considerable nursing (general, paediatric disability/oncology, palliative care) and teaching experience and contributed to the 2010 Irish Policy document “Palliative Care for Children with Life-Limiting Conditions in Ireland DoHC”. Claire is a contributing member of the National Development Committee for children’s palliative care tasked with implementing policy recommendations. She is involved in several collaborative research projects nationally. Uniquely, Claire also experienced children’s palliative care as a Mother to a child with a life-limiting condition and this insight combined with her professional expertise underpins her aspiration for excellence in this developing specialty.

Claire can be contacted via email at: claire.quinn@nuigalway.ie

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