FutureCare: Healthcare Forum

Prof. Pat Nash, Chief Clinical Director, Saolta University Healthcare Group officially opened the Healthcare Forum as part of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences strategy launch.

In response to the evolving healthcare needs of the population, we plan to develop graduate-entry courses across most of our healthcare professional programmes.

In addition, we have initiated a planning phase in exploring new programmes in the areas of emerging need, such as Pharmacy, Radiography and Nutrition. We plan to establish at least 7 new graduate and undergraduate programmes. These will create expanded opportunities for our future students, and necessitate a larger workforce in all categories of our staff.

Our educational programmes will be cognisant of other changes in healthcare, new settings of delivery (e.g. Integrated Care) and new platforms for training such as simulation, for which we our national leadership in simulation. New settings for training and education offer renewed opportunities for inter-professional learning and education.

Our education strategy will embrace other fundamental shifts in health and healthcare, particularly the transformative role of Medical Technologies, Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence, where we will leverage our educational agenda with existing areas of research strength, providing an area of distinctness and recognised identity for our College and University Galway.

We need to prepare our students for success, through future-proofed curricula, innovative approaches to teaching, and empowering them with the skills required for life-long learning.