Trinity is launching two new online courses which participants can avail of free of charge. The courses, “An Introduction to Radiation Oncology: From Diagnosis to Survivorship” and “Improving Health Assessments for People with an Intellectual Disability”, can be studied for free over a four-week period, or participants can pay a fee for unlimited access to a course.
The introductory course to Radiation Oncology educates students on how radiation therapy is used in treating cancer. It covers how radiation therapy works in treating specific types of cancer, such as prostate cancer, and new biological and technological developments in radiation therapy treatments.
Associate Professor and Trinity’s Head of Radiation Therapy, Michelle Leech, and Assistant Professor and Trinity’s Head of Clinical Education, Claire Poole, are leading the course. The course is suited to health professionals working with cancer patients, alongside cancer patients likely to undergo radiation therapy and their carers or family members.
Secondly, the health assessments course aims to mitigate difficulties in detecting poor health in people with an intellectual disability by teaching health professionals how to include people with an intellectual disability in health assessments.
This course is set to provide health professionals with the skills to communicate better with people with an intellectual disability during health assessments and identify the inequalities that these individuals can face which obstruct their engagement with health assessments.
The Nursery and Midwifery Board of Ireland, which regulates the nursing and midwifery professions in Ireland, have officially accredited this course. Trinity’s Ussher Assistant Professor in Ageing and Intellectual Disability, Eilish Burke, is leading the course.
The new courses are offered through course provider FutureLearn, a private company owned by The Open University. Based in the UK, The Open University offers third-level courses to students in over 100 countries online.
Other courses Trinity offers through FutureLearn include “Achieving Sustainable Development”, which examines the impact of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and “The Book of Kells: Exploring an Irish Medieval Masterpiece, which allows participants to use the Book of Kells as a lens for studying the landscape, history, and politics of early medieval Ireland.
