The inaugural Clinical Director Executive Skills programme was officially launched today in RCSI Dublin. The first of its kind in Ireland, this programme will help clinical directors and consultants to further develop clinical leadership and management skills which will promote improved services and better patient outcomes.

This CD Executive Skills programme has been jointly designed by the Clinical Director Programme and Institute of Leadership, RCSI and is funded by the Quality Improvement Division of the HSE, under the direction of Dr Philip Crowley, who said that the HSE wants to provide as much support as it can to make sure that the role of clinical director is effective in improving care for our patients.

The programme is available to clinical director leaders from mental health, acute hospital services, and is in line with the health system reform agenda and the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Report on Future Health.

Commenting on the launch of this programme, Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD said: "I believe that good and effective clinical leadership is a huge driver of improvements in the health service and ultimately leads to positive change and innovation. The significance of high quality leadership has never been more necessary. I would like to congratulate the Quality Improvement Division in the HSE, and the Institute of Leadership, RCSI, who are collaborating in the delivery of this essential course."

Dr Julie McCarthy, HSE National Clinical Lead, CD Programme commented that she was delighted to see the programme brought to fruition, following much feedback from clinical directors working at the frontline. “This programme provides a unique opportunity to bring senior clinical leaders together and provides a platform for shared learning, meaningful engagement and networking across boundaries in an educational peer to peer setting. It will provide amongst other things, leadership, human resource and data analysis training. We are working to ensure that the clinical director model can be implemented as it was intended and can be effective in improving clinical outcomes for our patients,” she said.

Dr Julie McCarthy, HSE National Clinical Lead, CD Programme and Prof. John Hyland, President of RCSI pictured at the launch of the Clinical Director Executive Skills programme.

According to Prof. Ciaran O’Boyle, Director of the RCSI Institute of Leadership, “Health professionals now work in a challenging and rapidly changing environment, requiring us to display a broad range of leadership, supervisory and management skills. However, most of us will have received little or no training in our professional careers for these demanding roles. Our objective is to improve human health through the development of excellent leaders and managers in the health professions”.

The Institute of Leadership, RCSI is Ireland’s only higher education institution dedicated exclusively to developing the leadership, management and educational capacity of health professionals and their organisations.

RCSI President, Prof. John Hyland addresses attendees at the launch of the inaugural Clinical Director Executive Skills programme.

RCSI is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018). It is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. RCSI is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.