Aim
The Department aims to give our graduates a child and family centred approach to paediatric illness; and to promote Child Health through education and research, as the priority in Health.
Objectives
To develop the paediatric content of the medical undergraduate curriculum to ensure that all medical graduates are sensitive to the needs of sick children and conversant with effective and efficient treatments in Paediatrics;
To provide a high quality student experience and education;
To establish UCC as the leading research active paediatric centre in Ireland;
To consolidate existing research projects and innovative paediatric research relating to the stated health needs and priorities of Irish children;
To ensure that all new clinical appointments in the region have a teaching and/or a research role in the department;
To expand the consultant base in Cork Paediatrics and in the Munster region to allow expansion of the school, collaborative research and local delivery of a comprehensive service;
To collaborate with the UCC linked health boards to establish a Children's Hospital. A Regional Children's Hospital will be an invaluable asset to the UCC Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Therapy and Dentistry, as well as Medicine;
To encourage the further development of the successful programmes in neonatal and paediatric resuscitation;
To establish Community Paediatrics as an academic discipline with a view to collaborative research at local, national and international levels;
To develop our established links with the departments involved in the BA in Early Childhood Studies to promote cross faculty research in early childhood.
History
Dr. Richard G.G. Barry came to Cork in 1949, and commenced practice as a physician with a special interest in Paediatarics. In 1950 he was made the first UCC College Lecturer in Paediatrics, and in 1970 was appointed to the first Chair in Paediatrics. In 1949, the infant mortality in Cork was just less than 60/1000 live births, and was just greater than 6/1000 live births when Professor Barry retired in 1982. From the beginning, Dr. Barry developed a strong Paediatric teaching programme for medical undergraduates. Medical students at that time obtained an excellent clinical experience in Paediatrics. The department in Cork was one of the first in these islands, where Paediatrics had parity with Surgery and Obstetrics. Paediatrics has been a full final medical examination subject in UCC since the fifties.Dr. G.H. Cussen was appointed Consultant Neonatologist in 1964 and was appointed to a personal chair in 1980. Professor Cussen was responsible for developing neonatology and devoted much of his professional life to children with special needs.
Dr. Peter J. Kearney was appointed Professor of Paediatrics in 1980. He introduced undergraduate paediatric projects and other innovative teaching and assessment methods including the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
In 1995 an innovative cross faculty degree, the BA in Early Childhood Studies was instituted in UCC. The participating departments are Education, Applied Social Studies, Applied Psychology and Paediatrics and Child Health. The Department contributes a comprehensive Child Health component to this degree, providing modules (25% of total) for each of the three years of the degree.
Mid-Western Regional Hospital Limerick has always been an important teaching resource for the Department. In 1999, the Department appointed a Part-Time Assistant Lecturer to MWRHL and since then Limerick has been one of the highest rated hospitals by the medical students in Paediatrics.
