DrCatherine Fitzgerald

Dr Catherine Fitzgerald is a research fellow with the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at RCSI, her current role is to implement and roll out the European Centre of Excellence for Research in Continuing Professional Development and scope the development of a WHO Collaborating Centre in the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at RCSI. She is working with national and external European collaborators from both academia and industry. Previously, Cathy has worked as a nurse, midwife and specialist community public health nurse; she has a variety of clinical experience working in Ireland, the UK, Australia, USA and India. She graduated with a Master’s in Public Health (MPH), from the University of Alabama at Birmingham USA, and a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology from University College Dublin. During her PhD, she conducted a longitudinal cohort study examining the clinical outcomes of children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) both clinically and those detected through the new-born bloodspot (NBS) programme. This was a national study involving all the paediatric specialist CF centres in Ireland. She has disseminated the findings from this study at numerous national and international conferences, and has published the findings in peer-reviewed journals.