A renowned educationalist with a special interest in how people learn best will address a conference at NUI Galway organised by its School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Professor Phil Race, who specialises in assessment, learning and teaching, will host a keynote discussion at the third international conference entitled “Building and Promoting Excellence in Practice” from April 4 to 5 at Áras Moyola, NUI Galway.
Professor Race’s passion and focus will be on “Making Learning Happen”. Professor Race’s work was recognised in 2007 by the Higher Education Academy UK awarding him a National Teaching Fellowship and the status of senior fellow of the academy.
The event will bring together leaders in nursing and midwifery to share their experiences of clinical care and research. It will cover topics relevant to the fields of chronic illness, mental health, older people, maternity care and women’s health, and teaching and learning in practice.
The keynote speaker will be Margarete Sandelowski, a distinguished professor at the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is in technology, gender, and qualitative and mixed research methodology.
She recently completed a National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing research study to develop methods to synthesize qualitative and quantitative research findings in systematic reviews of empirical research.
Her address is entitled “The Challenges of Conducting Mixed Research Synthesis Studies for Evidence-Based Practice and Practice-Based Evidence.”
The inspirational speaker John Lonergan, the former governor of Mountjoy Prison, will share his personal experiences of “personhood and humanising care” in the prison services. He argues that our first responsibility as a society is to care for its most vulnerable people, the young, the old, the sick, the unemployed, the lonely and the poor.
This year’s conference is particularly important, says conference chairperson, NUI Galway’s Dr Declan Devane.
“Faced with rapidly changing health care contexts, new research initiatives and demanding resource constraints, the opportunity for health care professionals to come together to discuss best practice is vital. Thoughtful practice is at the heart of making a difference to those accessing our health care services; this conference supports thoughtful practice by sharing ideas research and innovations.”
It is estimated that some 200 delegates will attend the conference which will feature more than 100 presentations from national and international speakers. The conference will be of interest to all health professionals working in nursing or midwifery.
For more information visit www.nursingmidwifery.ie
