University College Dublin

This programme was developed in collaboration with Mater Miserciordiae University Hospital (MMUH) and the specialist pain modules will be facilitated by Professor Laserina O’Connor and colleagues in the Department of Pain Medicine, MMUH.

The programme is about learning opportunities in the delivery of high quality pain care across a variety of multifaceted clinical contexts. The MSc has been developed in a spirit of partnership with a variety of health service providers, including pain experts. The programme is also about the education and training of nurses/midwives for prescriptive authority in pain management at the point of qualification.

The American Society Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) has awarded international affiliate to this programme. The Irish Pain Society (Chapter IASP) has provided a scholarship for the student with the highest academic achievement.

Who is the programme for?
This programme is for nurses who wish to provide the highest quality of care by deepening and broadening their knowledge base in the field of pain management across communities. The MSc Advanced Pain Management with Prescriptive Authority programme builds on appropriate undergraduate level study to progress the student’s power of understanding for becoming more effectively, skillfully and humanely engaged in advanced pain practice across a variety of complex environments.

What is the programme about?
The programme is about learning opportunities in the delivery of high quality pain care across a variety of multifaceted clinical contexts. The MSc has been developed in a spirit of partnership with a variety of health service providers, including pain experts. The programme is also about the education and training of nurses/midwives for prescriptive authority in pain management at the point of qualification.

The American Society Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) has awarded international affiliate to this programme. The Irish Pain Society (Chapter IASP) has provided a scholarship for the student with the highest academic achievement.

Programme aims:
To foster leadership in pain practice.

To enable practitioners develop their skills not just of
emerging scholarship within the field of pain management but also of the wider academic, technological and intricate environments in which pain care takes place.

To ensure the nurse is equipped with the knowledge, skills and competence to prescribe safely and effectively.

What will I learn?
You will develop a sophisticated questioning approach and practical experience of the scientific method in the context of diagnostic challenges pertinent to acute, chronic and cancer pain and pain survivorship. In addition, you will gain a broad understanding of prescribing practice and interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary team working.

How will I benefit?
This programme will support individuals who wish to make pain care an advanced part of their portfolio and in addition, plot their career development as an advanced nurse/midwife practitioner and nurse/midwife prescriber.

Teaching methods/Information technology
A wide range of diverse and student-centered learning processes are used to create an exciting interactive environment of thinking and learning. Blackboard a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that supports online learning and teaching is used. Students attend multidisciplinary lectures, problem-solving discussion groups, seminars, and peer group presentations. The clinical practicums will ground students in actual pain practice across a variety of multifaceted environments. Practice placements pertinent to prescriptive authority will enable students meet the professional competence required.