Denis Ryan has over 33 years experience in the delivery, management and education sectors in Health and Social Care in Ireland and internationally. His background is primarily in mental health services. He developed the first public addiction counselling services provided in Ireland�s Mid West in the early 1980�s, having worked in adult mental health services before that. His initial training was in nursing and he subsequently pursued programmes in Counselling and completed his doctoral studies through Applied Psychology. Much of his career has been spent in education and management positions. He became the first Nursing Practice Development Co-ordinator for the Mental Health Services of the South Eastern Health Board in 1998, establishing their Nursing Practice Development Unit; which, among other things, established and monitored standards of care across the 5 mental health services of the South Eastern region and had responsibility for ensuring that placements for student nurses met An Bord Altranais requirements and standards.
In 2000 he moved into education full time, moving to take up a post of Tutor in the Mid Western Health Board�s Mental Health Services. From there he moved to the University of Limerick as Lecturer and subsequently as Senior Lecturer in the Nursing & Midwifery Department. He currently holds academic appointments as Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health, the University of Applied Science, Utrecht and the National Counselling Institute of Ireland and previously was Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven.
He has published widely in health related fields. He has undertaken service and role reviews in a number of areas. He regularly presents at international conferences. Much of his academic work has concentrated in three key areas; namely Stress and Coping; Conflict, Aggression and Work-related violence as well as Evidence Based Health Service Policy and management. He is committed to the development of best 'evidence-based' practice as well as the highest standard of practice. To this end he has developed and designed educational programmes at Levels 7, 8 and 9 on the National Framework of Qualifications as well as having been involved in the supervision and examination of doctoral level students in Ireland and the UK. He has been involved in programme development and management at the University of Limerick, University College Cork, Waterford Institute of Technology and was External Examiner with Athlone Institute of Technologyand and Trinity College, while currently with The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland . He also acts as a peer reviewer for a number of prestigious health care journals.
