This one-year programme has been developed to meet the requirements of the Nursing community, specialist practice units and An Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann policy criteria. <br><br>Lifelong learning is a continually supportive process that stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire the knowledge, values, skills and understanding they will require throughout their lifetime and apply them with confidence. The development of the Master of Health Sciences (Specialist Nursing) programme has been guided by the principles of lifelong learning.<br><br>Nursing practice is becoming increasingly specialised and complex and practitioners need to be able to respond to this complexity and be flexible and adaptive to change. To ensure that health care is cost effective and appropriate it is also important that clinical actions are based upon research evidence. Practitioners therefore require critical, analytical and reflective skills and also a breadth and depth of knowledge and research understanding to underpin practice. Nurses work in a multidisciplinary health environment and are partners in care with other healthcare professionals. It is important that the educational preparation for nurses enable them to develop the requisite skills and knowledge to function as equal partners, this is particularly important as educational preparation for other health professionals is at degree level and beyond. This programme offers specialist nurses with the opportunity to meet these challenges of health care. The programme involves a taught research methods module to support the completion of a research dissertation.