DrColleen Heffernan

Developed otoscopy training videos that were uploaded to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland members’ section. These videos were audited and shown to improve otoscopy knowledge. Wauchope et al, IJPORL 2022.

Yearly lectures on paediatric otolaryngology are held on campus at UCD every March - next date: 6th March 2026.

Welcomes UCD students to summer electives, e.g., in summer 2025, three students.

I teach the students in the UCD Graduate Diploma in Critical Care Nursing each September on airway surgery.

I enjoy doing research projects with UCD medical students. I have five active projects and one published paper, i.e., “Laryngeal Findings in a 20-Month-Old With Cri du Chat Syndrome”, Laryngoscope, 2025.

I teach each September at the British Association of Paediatric Otolaryngology Juniors’ session. This course covers the entire paediatric curriculum for the FRCS (ORL-HNS) examination. I give a lecture about laryngomalacia.

I am the course director for the biannual Boston Children’s Hospital/RCSI Paediatric Airway Simulation Course. The next course is in October 2026.

I am a faculty member at the biennial National Practical Course in Paediatric Otolaryngology, held at Alder Hey Hospital. 

I teach at the annual RCSI CPD_SS ENT Skills for General Surgeons. I am in charge of the paediatric section.

I set up the first Otolaryngology Journal Club in Children’s Health Ireland, with the inaugural meeting being on October 22 2019. It has happened at 0730hrs on the third Tuesday of the month since then. 

I was invited to give a lecture and teach at the inaugural Interdisciplinary Paediatric Airway Management Course in the ASSERT Centre in UCD on August 20 2025.

I regularly contribute to “Building Blocks” – a lecture series at Children’s Health Ireland for paediatric NCHDs on topics such as otoscopy and upper and lower airway obstruction.

I was an assigned educational supervisor with the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme for otolaryngology trainees 2021-2024, and I am now a clinical supervisor 2024 – present.