Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Course Overview

This postgraduate programme equips students with the knowledge and skills required to make meaningful contributions to cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation practice. The course addresses disease-specific theory and practice components together with a strong focus on research, integrated care approaches, evidence-informed innovation in rehabilitative service delivery and the latest evidence-based implementation of best-practice guidelines and healthcare policy. Whilst the main focus is cardiovascular and pulmonary disease prevention and rehabilitation, key learning outcomes achieved apply to chronic disease management more widely.



Unique features of this programme include:

• Flexible learning: The course uses a dual delivery approach (with a fully online option available) by incorporating scheduled tutorials and workshops coupled with the directed study. This enables students to simultaneously maintain professional roles in clinical practice or manage other commitments whilst completing their studies.

• Delivered in partnership with the National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health (NIPC): This partnership enables an exceptional opportunity for students to interact with leading experts as well as engage in cutting-edge research and further opportunities in cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation.

• Interdisciplinary expert teaching faculty: Students from a variety of backgrounds from all over the world interact with international leaders and clinical specialists from medicine, nursing, nutrition, exercise, behavioural medicine, and public health.



As reflected within the speciality of cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation, this programme is interdisciplinary in nature and designed predominantly for health care practitioners. The course focuses on current evidence-based delivery of cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation practices, behavioural change strategies, lifestyle approaches to risk factor modification, psychosocial health, and medical management of cardiovascular risk factors. Outcome measures, health technology, and innovation in service design also feature strongly to enable programme uptake and high-quality delivery. 



This programme aims to provide nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, GPs, hospital doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, and other health professionals interested in or working with people with cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions the knowledge to provide high-quality care as well as an array of career opportunities in clinical care transformation, research, academia, and industry. Students are supervised in designing an original research project which addresses a specific research question in any aspect of cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation. Contributors are drawn from clinical departments at the University Hospital Galway, scientific and healthcare disciplines at the University of Galway, the Croí clinical team, and an array of established national and international partnerships.



The course starts in September and finishes in August, covering teaching and clinical placement components. Structured weekly directed study is coupled with a schedule of group-based lectures, tutorials, and interactive workshops. These group-based sessions are delivered online via live sessions and are timetabled for Thursdays and Fridays (3 pm – 8 pm) with occasional Saturdays (10 am – 3 pm). Students working simultaneously in a clinical setting can complete their studies using a fully online option, enabling access to the programme from their home country. International students with a Tier 2 Visa choosing to reside in Ireland during their studies and those not working in clinical practice are required to complete a weekly timetable of face-to-face activities that take place in a range of clinical settings.

The MSc in Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation involves students participating in a number of Level 9 modules totalling 90 ECTS. 



In Semester 1 students participate in three core modules (total 30ECTs):

• Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Disease (10 ECT)

• Research Methods (10 ECT)

• Reflective Clinical Practice (Part 1 Semester 1 & Part 2 in Semester 2) (10 ECT)



In Semester 2 students are required to complete 30 elective ECTs from the following options:

• Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (30 ECTS)

• Lifestyle Risk Factor Modification (30 ECTs)

• Tobacco Cessation in Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Management (10ECTs)

• Diet and Weight Management in Preventive Medicine and Cardiovascular Health (10ECTs)

• Physical Activity and Exercise in Chronic Disease Management (10ECTs)

• Pharmacotherapeutic Approaches in Cardiometabolic Medicine (10 ECTS)

• Cardiac Rehabilitation (30 ECTS)



Across all three semesters, students work on a primary Research Project (30 ECTS) that is submitted as a ready-to-publish article at the end of the programme. 



Please see Course Web Page above for module details.

Successful applicants will possess at least a Second Class Honours, Grade 1 degree (or equivalent) in a health care discipline or related subject area (e.g., medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, dietetics, sport and exercise science, clinical or health psychology, pharmacology, health promotion, public health, etc). For those who do not hold a primary degree at the required level, consideration will also be given to applicants with relevant work experience, background knowledge, and skills.



Entry to the Master’s programme is conditional upon achieving at least 60% in the core compulsory modules of the Postgraduate Diploma that take place in Semester 1. Candidates coming to Ireland from abroad or who do not have a degree from Ireland, or the UK will be asked to provide evidence of an acceptable result in one of the recognised English language proficiency tests, e.g., IELTS total score of 6.5 (or equivalent). Prospective candidates may be interviewed as part of the selection process. This usually takes place remotely via telephone, Teams or Zoom.

Applications must be completed online at: https://nuigalway.elluciancrmrecruit.com/Apply/Account/Login.



An application requires a registration fee of €35. You will be asked to upload proof of identification, academic transcripts, a personal statement, an academic reference and documentation to fulfil the English requirement (where English is not your first language).

1 year full-time.

Next start date: September 2025

Career Opportunities

There is an array of employment opportunities in public health, health promotion, healthcare management, academic and research settings and the pharmaceutical industry. Graduates of the course with a clinical background will also specifically benefit from career advancement in the specialty of cardiac rehabilitation, pulmonary rehabilitation and integrated care programmes more broadly.