ProfessorMartin McNamara

My principal research interest relates to how a professional practice discipline, such as nursing, also a relatively new presence in Irish higher education, can fulfil its social mandate in respect of patient care and population health and contribute to both the professional and academic communities. This entails a focus on knowledge development, transmission, dissemination and translation to practice as well as on leadership practices and innovation capacity. This interest and that focus have led to work on partnership models of curriculum design and development, interdisciplinary and inter-professional education, innovation and leadership development. My research, education and leadership is concerned with collaborating across disciplinary and professional boundaries to shape health systems to provide a quality service to citizens and to promote equity. This focus generates important questions about the content and level of undergraduate and graduate programmes, the proper focus of research in interdisciplinary and intersectoral contexts and leadership development. I am interested in questions concerning the attainment of a critical mass of innovation and research capacity in professional disciplines, leadership capacity in academia and the professions, interdisciplinary education and training, the reproduction of disciplines and succession planning.