PgCert in Advanced Practice Nursing
€5,940
Enhance your nursing career with skills and knowledge underpinned by research, critical thinking and experiential learning towards advanced practice nursing competency development.
Postgraduate Certificate
2 years
Hybrid - Part-time
50 ECTS
September 2025
About
This RCSI School of Nursing and Midwifery programme is suitable for nurses/midwives who have already completed a relevant MSc and the Medicinal Product Prescribing Programme.
It will enhance your knowledge in the domains of competence to become safe, caring, competent autonomous decision-makers who are willing to accept personal and professional accountability for evidence-based expert nursing care at an advanced practice level. This programme is delivered part-time.
This course is a Level 9 award on the Irish National Framework of Qualifications.
Develop an advanced understanding of advanced practice nursing
Integrate reflection, reflective practice and self-evaluation as an approach to supporting advanced professional growth, identifying learning needs and mastering practice
Develop clinical competence and an ability to work with a wide variety of healthcare professionals in predictable, unpredictable and ill-defined contexts
Integrate comprehensive holistic health assessment skills using evidence-based frameworks to determine diagnoses and inform autonomous advanced nursing care
Integrate appropriate diagnostic investigations and therapeutic interventions to inform clinical decision making
Develop the professional capability required to focus on wider complexities of advanced nurse practitioner role, scope and service
Suitable for
This programme is suitable for nurses/midwives who have already completed a relevant MSc and the Medicinal Product Prescribing programme.
What you will learn
Faculty highlight
Biography
Dr Jarlath Varley, Programme Director
Dr Varley has contributed to many aspects of ANP nursing in Ireland including policy development, role evaluation, evaluation of impact on health services and curriculum alignment with recent health policy strategies.
Find out more
Course information
This programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge to:
1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of a comprehensive range of knowledge in the specialist area.
2. Articulate a critical awareness of the latest evidence-based knowledge in the specialist area.
3. Demonstrate a range of research and specialist knowledge and skills to the specialist area of clinical practice.
4. Select from a broad range of specialist skills and knowledge in the specialist area.
5. Act in a comprehensive and often unpredictable variety of professional and ill-defined contexts in the specialist area.
6. Take significant responsibility for the work of individuals and groups and lead and initiate activity in the specialist area.
7. Critically self-evaluate professional and personal learning needs and those of others within their specialist area of practice and link to related continuing professional development requirements.
8. Present a reflective and questioning approach to specialist practice delivery and exhibit professional application of her/his knowledge in an accountable, responsible and evidence-based manner.
On successful completion of the programme, the student will qualify with a Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Practice Nursing (Level 9, 50 ECTS, Major Award) and be eligible for registration as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) with the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI).
- Advanced Practice Clinical Practicum I.
- Advanced Professional Accountability, Clinical Governance and Decision MakingAdvanced Systematic Assessment and Case Management.
- Optional Specialist Module (x 1).
- Advanced Practice Clinical Practicum II.
All postgraduate diploma programmes offered by the School of Nursing and Midwifery are accredited by RCSI, the National University of Ireland and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland. Recognition by bodies in other jurisdictions must be determined by individual applicants.
Admissions
To be eligible for the programme you must:
1. Have a minimum of an MSc in nursing or equivalent.
2. Hold active registration on a division of the professional register maintained by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.
3. Have three years’ recent post-registration clinical experience in nursing/midwifery (within the past five years) with the equivalent of one-year full-time experience in the specific area of practice.
4. Have evidence of support from your employer and a completed site declaration form, signed by the director of nursing/public health/authorised nurse manager. This must contain confirmation of a designated medical practitioner mentor and/or RANP mentor.
Learning occurs in many contexts including work, involvement in social and community activities, and learning through life experience generally.
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) does not give credit for experience as such – rather, it considers learning that was acquired as a result of the experience. RPL may be used to gain admission to programmes where you may not have obtained the standard entry requirements. This is considered on a case-by-case basis.
Exemptions from programme modules that duplicate learning already demonstrably acquired through prior learning may also be considered on a case-by-case basis.
For more information, please contact the School of Nursing and Midwifery:
- Tel: +353 1 402 2445
- Email: nursing@rcsi.ie
English language requirements for RCSI Postgraduate programmes are published here. If you have completed undergraduate/postgraduate full-time studies in the medium of the English language (three or more years cumulatively) or are registered with the NMBI, you are exempt from these requirements.
Total fees: €5,940
Year 1: €3,580
Year 2: €2,360
The fee includes an annual NUI fee of €45.
There is an additional application fee of €50 which is non-refundable.
Fees can be paid by bank transfer.
Full details on the payment of fees will be emailed to you before the commencement of your programme.
You can pay your fees in two equal instalments – one payment of 50% is due before you commence the programme, and the remaining payment is due at the midway point of the programme.
If you meet the criteria for a non-EU student, please contact us for more information on fee payments at:
- Tel: +353 1 402 2445
- Email: nursing@rcsi.ie
Please view our Postgraduate fees policy for more information.
Sponsored students
If your study is sponsored by your employer, you will be required to upload written confirmation of your sponsorship for the two years when accepting your programme offer. You will be unable to accept your offer until confirmation of sponsorship is received or a payment is made.
How to apply
Applications for September 2025 are now open, please apply at the link below or email nursing@rcsi.ie for further information.
Apply now