Assoc ProfessorSuzanne Donnelly

As a passionate educator and education leader in UCD Medicine my teaching activities span the full range of academic activity and engagement from strategic leadership and the delivery of major strategic initiatives to face to face teaching to all incoming first year undergraduate students of Medicine for the last 10 years.  

As project lead for our new flagship Medicine2030 programme, I was responsible for the design and development of a new medicine curriculum to prepare students for medical practice in a rapidly changing technology enabled healthcare environment and to inspire and enable their career success and fulfilment in medicine, however they choose to define this.

As programme director I assume all responsibilities of that role per Academic Regulations  for the UCD undergraduate and graduate entry medicine programmes. I teach on and coordinate 4 credit bearing modules in the new programme in the diverse but fundamental areas of Critical Thinking; Medical Humanities & Care in Medicine; Healthcare Systems and Systems Science and the preparatory Passport to Clinical Education in Stage 4 UEM and Stage 2 GEM, a prerequisite to entry to fully immersive clinical education. 

As a clinical rheumatologist I have been responsible for/ involved in the training of clinical specialist rheumatologists since my first consultant appointment in London in 2002. I run teaching clinics in rheumatology in the Mater Hospital and deliver clinical rheumatology teaching in the clinical curriculum. 

I have also been a member of a series of  the Medical Council of Ireland's Working Groups to support the delivery of its key strategic initiatives in education . These include its Review of Standards for Education & Training; Implementation Guidance for the New Standards; and the Safe Start initiative to support the safe transition of new entrants to the practice of medicine in Ireland. Additionally, I led the research and developed the evidence base for Safe Start. I am also a trained and experienced compliance assessor for the accreditation of clinical sites and training programmes in Medicine.