An Coiste Feabhais Acadúil
The Committee on Academic Quality Improvement
The Academic Quality Assurance Programme 2002-2003
Report to Údarás na hOllscoile
Review of
Department of Paediatrics
Self Assessment
Review Group Visit
Follow Up Meeting
Sept 2002 to Jan 2003
5–6 March, 2003
24 June 2003
This Report was compiled for members of Údarás na hOllscoile, NUI Galway and its
committees as a readily accessible but comprehensive source of information on the above
review, its context and its outcomes.
Professor Jim Gosling, Director of Quality, March 2004
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1. Overview of Department
1.1 Aims of the Department
1. To provide high quality undergraduate and postgraduate education in the area of
paediatrics and child health.
2. To contribute to the scientific basis of paediatrics and child health through research.
1.2 Background
The current Professor of Paediatrics was appointed in 1998 and also acts as Consultant
Paediatrician in University College Hospital Galway (UCHG).
1.3 Programmes currently contributed to
MB
MMedSc
MRCPI examination, on rotation
1.4 Student numbers
The number of fulltime equivalent (FTE) students in the Department was 19 in the year
2001/02.
1.5 Staff to student ratio
The number of fulltime equivalent academic staff in the Department was 1.2 in 2001/02 giving a
staff student ratio of 16.1 in 2001/02, as compared to a Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty
average of 17.1. There were also a senior technician and a half-time secretary/administrator.
1.6 Costs
The cost of the Department per FTE student (€9223 for direct costs and €11,017 for all costs)
was greater than the Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty average (€6625 and €8412,
respectively) (2001/02 figures).
Note: Because of the complexity of resource allocation to the Medical and Health Sciences
Faculty the above figures and cannot be compared with confidence to those from other faculties
and may not agree with internal departmental estimates.
1.7 Accommodation and facilities
The Department is located mainly in the Clinical Science Institute on the University College
Hospital Galway campus.
2. Review Group Visit and Report
This report arises from a visit by a review group to the Department of Paediatrics on 5-6 March
2003. The Department had already prepared and submitted a 'Self-Assessment Report' that,
with other documentation, was made available to the review team in advance of the visit.
The review team consisted of: Professor Hilary Hoey, Department of Paediatrics, Trinity
College Dublin and National Children’s Hospital, Dublin (Chairperson); Dr John McIntyre,
Academic Division of Child Health, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Derby (University of
Nottingham, UK); Professor John Morrison, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, NUI
Galway; and Dr Philip Dine, Department of French, NUI Galway, acting as Rapporteur.
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2.1 Summary, and Main Recommendations from Report
The principal conclusions of the Review Group are as follows: The members of the academic
department work well and effectively together. The undergraduate programme is highly
commendable: the Department is to be congratulated on achieving and maintaining a highquality programme. The Department has also made important contributions to the local
community. Research activity is low. The Review Committee also noted that the anticipated
increase in student numbers may benefit the University, but could threaten the high quality of
teaching unless proper attention is given to the allocation of adequate resources to the
Department.
The Review Group made the following strategic recommendations, all of which have
significant resource implications, in order to enable the Department both to build on existing
strengths and to remedy identified weaknesses:
• The Department has achieved excellent results in undergraduate paediatric education in
the face of serious staff shortages; maintaining these high standards, and dealing with
planned increases in student numbers, will only be possible with an associated increase
in teaching staff.
• In addition to the planned appointment of a Senior Lecturer, one additional Senior
Lecturer post should be created.
• It is also highly desirable that the clinical tutor/lecturer post be retained.
• Research should be encouraged through the following measures: the development of a
research strategy; the appointment of a Senior Lecturer with active research interests; the
appointment of additional consultant staff to deliver more of the clinical service
requirements; and by taking full advantage of the research support services available
through the University.
• Protected time should also be made available to the Head of Department, through
reductions in both his clinical and undergraduate workloads, to allow him to develop and
implement the Department’s research strategy.
• Input to the undergraduate course from the Community Paediatrician is valuable and the
University needs to recognise this through striving to retain goodwill and in future
appointments.
• The future development of the Department will require full-time administrative support.
• The full-time technician post should be redeployed.
• The future senior lecturer will require appropriate office space.
In short, the Department is currently understaffed and its undergraduate programme thus
depends on a considerable amount of goodwill on the part of non-academic staff. There is an
urgent need for the appointment of consultants to share the clinical workload, and all new
appointments should have designated teaching and/or research sessions.
3. Follow up Meeting
10.15 a.m. Wednesday, 24 June 2003
Present: Professor Jim Browne - Registrar, Professor Jim Gosling - Director of Quality (Chair),
Dr Tony Carney – Dean of Medicine & Health Sciences, Professor Gerard Hurley – Dean of
Research, Professor Gerard Loftus – Head of Department, Professor John Morrison– Review
Group Cognate, Ms Debbie Monroe, Mr Stewart Baker, Ms Maureen Linnane (in attendance)
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3.1 Action Plan for the Department:
1. The Department will continue to be involved in delivering undergraduate courses to
medical and other students in the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, as well as
participating actively in postgraduate programmes. The Department will also continue
to welcome Erasmus / Socrates exchange students.
2. As staffing improves, the research programme of the department will be revived,
particularly by exploiting possibilities for cooperative projects with other departments
and with the new research centres and institutes.
3. The Department will continue to play a full role in medical curriculum development,
where an active process within the Faculty will continue to update and improve the
Undergraduate Medical Curriculum.
4. The Department will have a more structured programme of tutorials rotating through the
different teachers and clinical topics, to improve the students’ learning experience.
5. While consulting with the Dean, the Head of Department will contact the Buildings
Office to discuss the issue of space shortages, in the hope of achieving more efficient
space usage by re-engineering current Departmental space in the Clinical Science
Institute.
6. The Department recognises the importance of communication and inter-personal skills to
practicing clinicians (in particular those dealing simultaneously with children and their
parents) and will promote and support the necessary training in these skills.
3.2 Action plan for University Management:
1. The post of Senior Lecturer / Consultant Paediatrician was advertised at the end of May
2003, and, in addition, Comhairle na nOspideal approved a new post of consultant
neonatologist in the same month.
2. The Clinical Tutor / Contract Lecturer post will be retained as agreed in the Faculty
Staffing Plan.
3. In order to emphasise the link between teaching and the practice of medicine in teaching
hospitals, the Registrar and Dean of Medicine and Health Science will investigate the
possibility of the ‘simultaneous’ appointment as clinical lecturers of new consultants in
appropriate posts.
4. The Registrar will work to bring about the establishment of a formal WHB/NUI, Galway
Strategic Group to which existing WHB/NUI Galway working groups would report.
This commitment will be adapted to suit the new national system for the management of
hospitals and health services.
5. The Registrar is aware, from the academic point of view, of the urgent need for a further
increase in the number of consultant paediatric staff employed in Galway by the Western
Health Board.
6. The Registrar and Dean recognise the current shortage of space in the Clinical Science
Institute, in particular for M Med Sc students who have difficulties in obtaining access to
computers. The CSI Management Board maintains a list of current requirements and
formally briefs the Vice President for Physical Resources.
7. The Director of Quality will consult with the Bursar to facilitate resolution of the pay
and pension-related issues that have arisen for professors and lecturers in ‘clinical units’
jointly funded by the University and the Health Board.
8. The Director of Quality will coordinate a study into systems to recognise the
contributions of professionals to the education of students in the Faculty of Medicine
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and Health Science. Support for this study has been sought from the HEA/NDP Quality
assurance Programme.
9. The Dean of Research will work with the Department/Faculty in providing/developing:
• An information session on grant applications/proposals to the Millennium Fund and
to the main funding bodies, with emphasis on support for younger staff and for
proposals involving other departments in the Faculty and University.
• Appropriate support for contract staff wishing to establish a research programme.
• Research methodology training.
• A register of research projects in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Approved by: Head of Department, Professor G Loftus, 5 November 2003
Approved by: Dean of Medicine & Health Sciences, Dr P A Carney, 26 November 2003
Approved by: Dean of Research, Professor G Hurley, 11 November 2003
Approved by: Registrar, Professor J Browne, 10 November 2003
Approved by: Director of CELT, Dr I MacLaren, 21 November, 2003
Finalised: 27 November, 2003, Jim Gosling, Director of Quality
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