Dr. Des Cawley is Head of the Department of Nursing and Healthcare, within the Faculty of Science and Health, Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest. He obtained his PhD from the University of Ulster, MSc. (Hons) in Nursing and Higher Diploma in Critical Care Nursing (ICU/CCU) from UCD. In addition, he is also registered with Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland as Registered General Nurse (RGN)and Registered Children’s Nurse (RCN)(PIN:45051). His clinical background is in critical care nursing specialising in the provision of care to adults and children in general and cardiac intensive care.
He completed his doctorate exploring the health of migrant men in the Republic of Ireland and has supervised several graduate students who have explored health issues and has disseminated his work with colleagues through peer reviewed publications and conferences. As an experienced academic in the Department of Nursing and Healthcare, he possesses in-depth knowledge of the organisational and governance structures of TUS through his work at Department, Faculty and University level. He has and continues to work closely with the International Office and Graduate School in promoting TUS internationally. In addition, he is the THEA representative on a number of Implementation Action Groups (IAG) for the Report of the Expert Review Body on Nursing and Midwifery, these include IAG 1 Education & Professional Development Undergraduate Review and IAG 3 Digital Health.
This is an exciting time as Head of Department as TUS in partnership with Associated Healthcare Providers (AHCPs) continues to meet the regional demands of clinical partners and stakeholders to expand and grow our undergraduate nursing numbers and expanding our post graduate suite of programmes to meet clinical demand.
In addition, he has also been part of inter-institutional research group, which focused on the care of children with complex care needs and their families, their transition to home and the management of children with complex care needs at the acute/community interface, publishing a number of reports and papers in this area. He also completed an Irish Research Council funded project to improve the quality of service and care to individuals in the Nurture Africa Clinic, Uganda and was shortlisted for an Irish Education Award in 2018 for this project. He was a member of a number of EU funded COST Actions and lead a working group on the EU COST Action titled CA 15222 European Network for cost containment and improved quality of health care. In 2018 was appointed as an Independent External Expert to the European COST evaluation group.
Click here for Desmond’s ORCiD