TU Dublin’s Online Healthcare Programmes in Clinical Instrument Decontamination – Expanding Access, Elevating Standards
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TU Dublin is proud to highlight a transformative and rapidly growing area of its academic portfolio: a suite of fully online, part-time healthcare programmes that are reshaping how professional education is delivered and recognised across Ireland and internationally.
These programmes are now recommended qualifications for new decontamination staff appointments in HSE-run hospitals. They also support career progression for existing personnel advancing into supervisory and managerial roles.
TU Dublin remains the only university on these islands offering academic qualifications in this specialised field of perioperative services. Since 2016, more than 1,400 healthcare professionals across all of Ireland’s acute hospitals have completed the training, underscoring both the need and the national impact of these programmes.
Developed in close collaboration with the Health Service Executive (HSE), the programmes address a critical but often overlooked aspect of healthcare: the decontamination of reusable surgical and diagnostic instruments. This includes the cleaning, disinfection, and sterilisation of essential medical devices, such as endoscopes, dental tools, ultrasound probes, and surgical instruments, which are reused thousands of times annually in patient care. These activities are essential perioperative services and are fundamental to the safe and effective delivery of surgeries and other clinical procedures. Without robust decontamination systems, modern healthcare could not function.
Far from being routine, this work is highly technical and strictly regulated. It relies on advanced technologies, including thermal and low-temperature sterilisation, high-level disinfection systems, digital traceability platforms, key tools in infection prevention across surgical theatres, endoscopy suites, and dental and outpatient services.
“These services are mission-critical,” says Dr. Gerard Colleran, Programme Chair. “Given the level of precision and safety required, they demand university-level training.”
What sets TU Dublin’s programmes apart is their accessible and sustainable delivery model. Thanks to generous support from global med-tech companies operating in Ireland, who supply specialist equipment and materials for demonstrations and practical workshops, these programmes are delivered on a cost-neutral basis, ensuring affordability and scale without financial pressure on the public health system.
Delivered fully online, the programmes blend live and recorded lectures, virtual practical demonstrations, and workplace-based projects. This flexible format is ideally suited to busy professionals, while maintaining a consistent academic standard. Though rooted in the Irish healthcare context, the programmes now reach participants in the NHS (UK), Portugal, the Azores, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Programmes Offered:
- BSc in Decontamination Science (3 years, part-time): Includes one day of work release per week for 24 days annually.
- Higher Certificate in Medical Device Decontamination: Comprises the first two years of the BSc, with the same time structure.
- Minor Certificate Programmes: Short, targeted evening modules designed to strengthen technical skills and problem-solving capacity in clinical settings.
TU Dublin is also developing a suite of workplace-based Master’s degrees in Clinical Instrument Decontamination, the first of their kind in Ireland or the UK, which will provide advanced academic progression for experienced professionals in the field.
Today, the majority of Decontamination Managers in Ireland’s public hospitals are graduates of TU Dublin’s programmes, a powerful testament to the quality, relevance, and credibility of the education provided.
Applications are now open for programmes starting in mid-September.
To learn more, please get in touch with the Programme Chairs or watch our Programme Overview video.
- Dr. Gerard Colleran: gerard.colleran@tudublin.ie
- Mr. Olegs Tucs: olegs.tucs@tudublin.ie