MSc in Loss and Bereavement

Year 1

In Year 1, this programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge to:

• Critically debate and contribute to theoretical understanding and knowledge about loss and grief across the life-cycle and grief support structures relating to health, community and work organisations and in the voluntary sector.
• Evaluate different contemporary perspectives on death, dying and loss in society – including social history, cultural issues, cause and circumstance of death, death education, loss through the life cycle, family bereavement, cultural issues, gender issues, research and ethical issues.
• Critically appraise, apply and design bereavement research, audit and evaluation.
• Analyse the organisation of bereavement support and formulate strategic and systematic developments in bereavement care in different settings.
• Design models for self-care and staff support in environments where people are consistently working with, or meeting, death and bereavement.
• Manage and evaluate changes in work practices relative to an area of bereavement care.
• Reflect on personal development and growth through the educational experience.
• Display an integrated value and evidence-based approach to the support of bereaved people.

Year 2

In Year 2, we aim to engender and demonstrate the following learning outcomes:

• Design an evidence-driven, ethical action research/change management proposal with respect to an aspect of bereavement care.
• Implement an action research/change project, analysing process and outcome changes in bereavement care.
• Demonstrate project management skills.
• Demonstrate presentation skills.
• Act as a leader in developing bereavement care.

Year 1

Module 1: Loss, grief and bereavement models through the life span (10 ECTS)

Scientific research and conceptualisation of loss, bereavement and grief has developed over the past 30 years – moving from staged prescriptive understandings to more fluid and social constructionist models. This module seeks to provide a thorough grounding in historical, theoretical and contemporary thinking around grief and loss. The module aims to explore how psychological theory has evolved to explain, predict and ameliorate the human response to loss and death.

Module 2: Counselling in loss and bereavement (10 ECTS)

The core conditions of counselling are relevant to good bereavement care. Basic counselling skills can and should be used by all who seek to support the bereaved in professional and volunteering capacities. These core conditions need to be made explicit and linked to our knowledge about loss and bereavement. This module will focus on the practical and theoretical aspects of bereavement counselling and how it pertains to different work roles and environments. Individual, family and group approaches will be considered. The module will also provide a structure to facilitate informed decisions about when and where to refer clients for professional help.

Module 3b: Organisational staff support and self-care (10 ECTS)

Death is universal and comes to us all. Working constantly in the face of loss and grief has an impact on individual carers. While there are individual strategies, practices and insights which can be developed to ameliorate specific stressors, organisations also hold responsibility for developing healthy workplaces. The aim of this module is to provide both a theoretical and experiential basis for the development of self-care and staff care capacity.

Module 4: Loss, death and bereavement in society (10 ECTS)

Our encounters with death and our experiences of grief and mourning are not static. Contemporary Western death is institutionalised, primarily happening in hospital and institutional care. Causes of death shift in line with medical and social developments. Cultural, genderbased, technological, ethical and political/social justice narratives all impact on how death and bereavement are interpreted and managed and individual psychological models are not sufficient to expand our understanding of loss. New developments such as public health models of dying and bereavement will be used to examine how death may be managed in our communities and how compassion may be maximised. A life-cycle approach will underpin the module.

The module aims to go beyond the individual perspective on loss, bereavement and death and to examine broader influences on our behaviour and attitudes.

Module 5: Research appraisal (5 ECTS)

The research-practice gap is a feature of much social and health research, and similarly is evident in the field of loss and bereavement. A sound understanding of the limits of research methods and conclusions and a strong competence in critical appraisal is appropriate to the development of bereavement care. This module aims to develop an understanding of research approaches and to develop critical appraisal skills relating to statements about grief and bereavement. Research specific to bereavement will be explored and the contemporary sources identified. The mechanisms, dynamics and current discourses around evidence-based decision-making and evidence-based policy making will be explored.

Module 6b: Range of loss and non-finite loss (5 ECTS, MSc Loss and Bereavement only)

Loss is an intrinsic feature of change. This module examines common life losses and how they are theorised and supported. This module seeks to identify the ways in which loss presents in a range of situations, not always concerned with death. Specifically mental illness, dementia, fertility and addiction will be examined with consideration also of loss of place and role.

Module 7: Policy and management in bereavement care (10 ECTS)

Bereavement impacts on all citizens of our society and an integrated approach to bereavement care requires strategic direction. Bereavement care should be integrated into national policy and priority in health and non-health areas. The need to maximise natural support, to identify those at risk of poor outcomes and to resource appropriate specialist service underpins a common framework. This module identifies the broad context of bereavement care at community and national level. It also identifies and critiques the main modes of bereavement care, assessment, audit and governance of voluntary organisations. Specific content is provided for maternity settings. The module aims to uncover the features of excellent bereavement care at national, local and workplace level.

Year 2

Module 8: Dissertation (30 ECTS)

The module aims to integrate learning into action, in order to promote the development of bereavement care in an area. This module provides the directive content to prepare the final dissertation of the MSc. An action research project will be devised, designed and executed.

Classes for Year 1 are held online on one Saturday, with a two-day block of lectures in the classroom the following week. The programme will run from 9.15am to 5:30pm, September to May.

In Year 2, you will complete a dissertation. Classes are generally held in two-day blocks once a month (Mondays and Tuesdays) and run from September to May.

There are no exams but there will be continuous assessment based on a range of methods. These include written assignments, reaction papers and a dissertation/work-based project in year two.

This is an RCSI programme run in association with the Irish Hospice Foundation. It is accredited by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the National University of Ireland as a Level 9 qualification.