Getting greatly exercised at a new school

The RCSI established its School of Physiotherapy in 1999. It offers a three-year degree programme to those entering with a basic science degree. The school was set up because the college had decided to broaden its scope and enter further into the field of health science. Of course, the RCSI already had a strong interest in the area with its Faculty of Nursing and Medical Schools, but it wanted to get involved in something different. Disciplines such as anatomy, psychology and physiology all existed within other departments, and all of these lend themselves to physiotherapy. Even though the School of Physiotherapy has not been running for long (the first students will graduate in 2002), the response to it has already been overwhelming.

Although Trinity and UCD were already offering this degree, there were never enough places to fill the demand. As a result, a large number of Irish people had to travel to Britain to get the training they needed for the job. Indeed, the shortfall in places was noticed by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, who increased the number of college places for physiotherapy in response to the skills shortfall in the Ireland.

The RCSI can offer a viable alternative to people and there has already been a substantial demand from graduates for the course. Within the college the response has been excellent and there has also been very good feedback from hospitals around Ireland. The degree programme runs for three years for those with an undergraduate science degree, and offers a one-year prephysiotherapy year for those without such a qualification. As with any course in the field of health or medicine, a substantial part of the training must be completed in a clinical setting.

These placements, which take place during the final two years of the degree, are held in hospitals all over the country and encompass the traditional areas of physiotherapy, such as outpatients, orthopaedics, neurology, paediatrics, ergonomics, women's health and community care. According to the course director, Professor Marie Guidon, the placements will run over a time frame of 1,000 hours. Physiotherapy comes highly recommended as a career choice because there are so many varied aspects to the field of work. There are many opportunities to diversify and, due to the lack of places in the country, there is a number of posts unfilled each year.

Another new school planned at the RCSI is the School of Pharmacy. A Bacon report has even been published highlighting the chronic skills shortage in this field. Last August, colleges were given the go-ahead to provide 50 more places and, according to Professor Kevin O'Malley, registrar and chief executive of the RCSI, the School of Pharmacy will open in October 2001 or 2002, if the necessary supports are available.

Of course, this will depend on approval from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, but this is by no means the only difficulty. "Regulations will have to be changed by the Minister for Health, because at the moment Trinity is the only place that has approval," says Prof O'Malley. "The HEA have invited people to make bids to provide pharmacy places, which they will fund. The outcome of this will dictate how it will be financed."

Professor John Kelly, director of pharmacy at the RCSI, designs the course, and a project team which consists of both internal and external experts has been assembled. "We reviewed pharmacy courses in the context of what the needs of pharmacy in Ireland are," he says. "This includes the needs of industry, hospitals and the community. The course has been carefully structured so that pharmacists can operate in research and teach as well."

TO this end, the programme has been designed with a foundation in scientific topics, as well as a grounding in professional and legal research.

However, any new course like this has to be structured to address the particular requirements of the Irish market and to enable the pharmacist to adapt to the professional requirements both in Europe and even further afield. Prof Kelly and the other course designers have been very careful to take all these considerations into account, resulting in the design of a modern useful course.