25 successful applicants have enrolled into the new course leading to a 30 ECTS Postgraduate Certificate in Patient Safety & Clinical Risk Management at MQF level 7, which was officially launched on Monday 19 October 2020.
The course is offered on a part-time basis in the evening, is two semesters long and includes a wide variety of topics, from the basic principles of patient safety and clinical risk management up until the application of tools and practices to enhance patient safety.
It is therefore ideal for all practising healthcare professionals who would like to gain a deeper understanding of patient safety and clinical risk management they practise on a daily basis. Those who successfully complete the course may embark on a Master by Research in the subject areas.
Another element of novelty in this course lies in how some study-units are being taught by not just one lecturer, but by a panel of lecturers from different disciplines, who through interactive discussions, will be able to better project the interdisciplinarity that is crucial for patient safety and clinical risk management.
Course coordinator Prof. Sandra C. Buttigieg, who has recently guest-edited an e-book on Patient Safety and has just been elected on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Health Management Association (EHMA), said she was very pleased with the team of highly qualified academics who are also practising health professionals that she put together and who have enthusiastically agreed to lecture in this course. Prof. Buttigieg noted that the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) is the ideal institution within the University of Malta to host such a programme in view of FHS’s consistent strategic position as an interdisciplinary faculty in health sciences.
The academics contributing to this course have already undergone research on patient safety that has been published in a number of well-respected international and peer-reviewed journals.
As Chairperson of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Team at Mater Dei Hospital, Prof. Buttigieg thanked the team members, as well as MDH management for their wholehearted support in enabling her to realise this vision.
Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr Roberta Sammut, who was also present for the launch held at the University Council Room, remarked that the favourable take-up of the course is a clear sign of how relevant and timely such an offering is for health professionals. She remarked that FHS has always endeavoured to be agile in responding to the needs of healthcare and health science research.
UM Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella expressed his excitement at this development as he considers it to be a sign of growth for the faculty and its success at collaborating with other faculties. He also noted that the multi-/inter-disciplinarity of the course is a desired outcome that has brought together various medical and healthcare professionals into one unified team that places patient safety and clinical risk management at the core of its work, and that this will be the recipe for success for this venture.