Program Overview
The Graduate Certificate in Health Professions Education equips health and social care professionals with skills to design and deliver effective educational programs. Through blended learning, students develop knowledge in curriculum theory, pedagogy, and assessment, and improve communication and teaching abilities. The program meets eligibility requirements for Nurse Tutors (RNT) and Midwife Tutors (RMT) in Ireland, and requires practical teaching experience.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
The Graduate Certificate in Health Professions Education (HPE) is an interdisciplinary program designed for health and social care professionals who already hold a relevant master's degree. The program aims to equip these professionals with the necessary skills and knowledge to design and deliver effective educational programs for undergraduate and graduate students in their respective disciplines.
Objectives:
The program's specific aims are to enable students to:
- Realize their potential, engage their creativity, and build their confidence and self-esteem so that they can likewise enable their students to do the same by maximizing the learning opportunities available to them.
- Acquire and apply selected theories, concepts, models, and frameworks to enable high levels of judgment, discretion, and decision-making in health professions education. This includes key academic ideas from curriculum and pedagogical theory, the psychology of learning, and related perspectives in the sociology of education.
- Develop a critical awareness of relevant legislation in their respective professions, specifically, and the health system, generally, and relevant standards and requirements, or other criteria, for professional registration education programs in their health profession.
- Demonstrate the acquisition, synthesis, integration, and application of knowledge from a select range of disciplines to inform, develop, and innovate education practice in the healthcare professions.
- Design, develop, and deliver education and training programs for their respective health professions.
- Develop curricula, cognisant of learners' characteristics, programs' purposes, and relevant contextual considerations, including the human, technological, infrastructural, financial, and other resources available.
- Develop effective communication skills in order to present balanced arguments and engage with confidence in academic and multi-professional debates in health professions education.
- Act as an effective member of the education team and participate in a multidisciplinary team approach to health professions education.
- Demonstrate the value and distinctive contribution of their profession through the generation of disciplinary knowledge and innovative educational practice.
Assessment:
Assessment is continuous and of, for, and as learning. The methods employed include:
- Student-led presentations
- Assignments
- The design of a program of study
Teaching:
The program is delivered through blended learning and comprises a number of workshops supported by Brightspace, UCD's virtual learning environment. A range of methods are used to expose students to innovative and dynamic ways of facilitating and enhancing learning, including:
- Lectures
- Workshops
- Small group discussions
- Blended learning
- Case presentations
- Clinical simulation
Careers:
For Registered Nurses and Midwives, who hold a relevant master's degree, approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI), this program will confer eligibility to register as a Nurse Tutor (RNT) or as a Midwife Tutor (RMT).
Other:
- The program is best suited to applicants whose roles include a substantial teaching component.
- The program requires 80 hours of theoretical teaching and 20 hours of clinical teaching.
- Students must undertake at least 100 teaching hours during the program.
- The assessment of teaching skills in the context of professional practice hours must be completed under the supervision of an experienced health professional educator and, in the case of nurses and midwives, a Registered Nurse or Midwife Tutor.
- Opportunities must also be provided to observe the role of preceptors, lecturers in the health profession, and other health care specialists who coordinate students' clinical learning experiences and the assessment of learning in practice.
GradCert Health Professions Education (X888) Part Time EU fee per year - € 7370
