Health Psychology

The RCSI Department of Health Psychology was established in 1985, making it the first psychology department in a medical school in Ireland.

Psychology was integrated as a core discipline in our medical curriculum in 1987, and it remains a central component of the curriculum for our Undergraduate Medicine, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy students today.

We currently have eight full-time academic staff across three continents (Ireland, Bahrain and Malaysia).

The academic departments of Health Psychology and Public Health and Epidemiology form part of the Centre for Population Health and Health Services Research.

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The Department of Health Psychology provides health psychology, behavioural sciences and research methods teaching to Medicine, Physiotherapy and Pharmacy Undergraduate students; Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) students; Postgraduate Masters; and Structured PhD programmes.

We focus on developing students’ team working skills, their resilience and reflective practitioner skills – ensuring that our graduates have the knowledge, values, and abilities necessary to build healthy professional and patient relationships, and deliver person-centred healthcare.

Undergraduate Medicine and Physiotherapy students and GEM students currently take a dedicated health psychology module entitled ‘Health, Behaviour and Patient Safety’, as well as an integrated neuroscience module that encompasses a significant psychology component.

RCSI Pharmacy students complete the MPharm degree, in which psychology is integrated throughout the five years of the programme. Our teaching integrates key themes from psychology and health psychology such as lifespan development, learning and memory, health risk behaviours, adherence and health behaviour change theory with other core pharmacy competencies such as pharmacy practice, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, and pharmaceutical chemistry.

Our Postgraduate teaching comprises health psychology and research methods input on the SPHeRE PhD programme, the Physician Associate programme, the Masters in Surgery (MCh) programme and a short course in Health Research Methods. In addition, we supervise MCh, MSc and PhD theses.

The Department of Health Psychology makes a key contribution to RCSI’s research activities, with an international reputation for health psychology, health services and population health research. To date, the department has received over €20 million in grant awards and has a strong publication record, authoring over 50 national reports and more than 400 peer-reviewed journal articles.

The department's research focusses, in particular, on cardiovascular disease, ageing, sexual health, quality of life assessment, respiratory disease, psychometrics, mental health, health behaviours, and complex intervention development and implementation.

Our faculty actively contribute to the health psychology community by hosting national and international conferences, including the European Health Psychology Society and Psychology, Health and Medicine annual conferences. We have also chaired the Psychological Society of Ireland Division of Health Psychology and have two past presidents of the European Health Psychology Society.

The department currently has 28 postgraduate scholars – including 18 PhDs, two MDs and eight Masters students (including MScs and MChs) – working on a diverse range of projects.

Professor/Head of Department and Head of Division of Population Health Sciences

Associate Professor

Senior Lecturers

Lecturers

Research Manager, Division of Population Health Sciences

  • Laura Méchineau Phelan

Post-doctoral Researchers

Honorary Senior Lecturer

  • Niall Pender (Beaumont Hospital)

Honorary Lecturer