28th November 1997

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It's a sad fact that in the world today there is always a disaster waiting to happen. From Rwanda to Bosnia, Kobe to Montserrat, natural and man made disasters call for healthcare skills of a very specialized kind, often delivered by a small number of dedicated people with few resources, working in conditions of unimaginable horror.

It was to cope with the worldwide demand for trained nursing staff capable of working effectively and efficiently in disaster zones that the University of Ulster developed a unique postgraduate nursing course.

The MSc in Advanced Disaster Response Preparedness, was developed by the University in response to a call by the World Health Organization, which found that - in the wake of relief efforts in the former Yugoslavia - international teams and teams of health care workers had difficulty working cohesively.

The University's School of Health Sciences, nursing lecturers Professor Jenny Boore and Mr Pat Deeny put together a proposal for a pan-European project to provide postgraduate specialist education for nurses focusing on disaster relief work. Funding came from the EU, and partners included Finland, Spain, the Republic of Ireland and Israel. Links have also been forged to disaster relief agencies like the Red Cross and France's Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Driving the disaster nursing MSc project forward is Coleraine-based lecturer Pat Deeny:

"What makes this programme unique is that there is nowhere else in the world where you have a MSc degree that is both multi-national and has a practice focus. Nursing is a practice discipline and it is essential that we actually focus on practice."

Aimed at nurses with at least four years' experience, Deeny said that the course will look at issues such as the kind of skills that are needed in, for example, an air crash, such as resuscitation and pain relief. It will also look at nursing in war-zones where staff have to assess the risks to safety. Dealing with post-trauma stress, how to develop local counselling systems as well as make difficult decisions around issues like food rationing, will all form part of the programme.

While the students will come from countries across the EU, they will all be registered as students of the University. The two year MSc course will be delivered through innovative on-line technologies, using multi-media and Internet-based learning tools, supplemented by three summer schools and a 12-week placement in a live disaster zone.

Pat Deeny expects to draw students from a wide range of sources, including University nursing graduates who have shown an interest in international work.

"Linked to that, every year we at the University sends 30 undergraduates to countries across the world and they get experience in Africa, the USA, the Far East, and Australia.

"They spend three months there as undergraduates. There is a large number who go to the African continent and of those people, many have said that they would like to specialise in disaster relief nursing. There are also nurses already embarked on their careers who would like to move into this field of nursing, as well as nurses already working with relief agencies who would want to complete this new programme."

He is expecting the first programme - scheduled for 1999 - to have an intake of around 25, including students from the international partners as well as from Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk