Learn more about RCPI

We are a postgraduate medical training college dedicated to ensuring that doctors have the skills to provide patients with the best possible care

While our role in society has undergone profound changes since our foundation in 1654, we remain first and foremost a college dedicated to education and training. We are committed to helping doctors and healthcare professionals enhance their skills, competencies and professionalism throughout their working lives.

Education and training are lifelong commitments. We offer postgraduate specialist training programmes and examinations and are committed to healthcare advocacy. Our education programmes are available to doctors and healthcare professionals. Our Registered Charity Number (RCN) is 20002718.

OUR PRESIDENT

Professor Mary Horgan is the 142nd, and first female President, of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

Professor Horgan is a Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine at Cork University Hospital.

As President, Professor Horgan chairs our Executive and Council, and is actively involved in many other areas of our College.

Prof. Horgan is a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and practices on the frontline in University College Cork in the South of Ireland. She is former Dean of the School of Medicine in UCC. She currently serves on our National Immunisation Advisory Committee and our National Public Health Emergency Team – which advises the Irish Government on public health issues during this pandemic. She is also Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee. She also trained in the US where she worked in St Louis from 1990-1997.

OUR CORE VALUES

Welcoming: Supportive, inclusive, open, caring and diverse
Connecting: Engaged across faculties, with society, our partners and members across the globe
Respectful: Mutual respect and how we behave internally with each other and with the public, learners, members, fellows, trainees and trainers
Responsive: Innovative, progressive, agile and receptive to change
Challenging: Inquisitive, questioning, ambitious, brave and independent
Trustworthy: Trusted because of our heritage, professionalism, reputation and honesty

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

RCPI’s three main areas of activity under the strategy are:

Education, Professional Development and Lifelong Learning
Specialist Training
Healthcare Leadership, through advocacy, influence, expertise and support

At the centre of what we do are our learners, trainees, members, fellows and society.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

We have four core strategic objectives:

Forward Thinking – Ensuring we continue to innovate and evolve; incorporating best practice and the latest thinking into all our offerings and into everything we do.
Globally Active – Being an active global group of doctors with an increased presence across the world and greater international membership, collaborating and sharing knowledge and expertise across borders.
Dynamic Organisation – Being a responsive, agile, efficient organisation with leading technologies, efficient processes and the right skillsets and expertise to enable us to provide an excellent and valuable experience to all our stakeholders.
Financial Strength – Being financially independent with additional and diverse revenues from both national and international markets and from both public and private sectors; allowing us to invest to make us stronger and better at what we do.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Over the next three years, our activities and resources will be focused on delivering ten strategic initiatives:

To enhance the quality of our training programmes and supports offered to ensure they meet the needs of doctors
To develop our exam membership offering to best meet the needs of doctors
To extend our global engagement and enhance our international training programme offering
To measure and improve core RCPI processes and use data to support evidence-based decision making
To promote excellence across the organisation to maximise performance and realise College goals
To offer lifelong learning opportunities
To be the voice of physicians, shaping and influencing healthcare policy, at a national level
To create a new membership model and enhanced membership engagement
To develop, preserve, catalogue and make accessible RCPI’s heritage collections
To champion equality, diversity and inclusion in all College activity

OUR GLOBAL NETWORK

We have 12,000 trainees, licentiates, members and fellows across 29 different specialties in over 90 countries.

This network provides the knowledge, expertise and commitment to enable us to achieve our strategy and drive constant improvements in patient care.

Our Members identify themselves with the post-nominal letters MRCPI. Our Fellows use the post-nominal FRCPI.

OUR EXAMINATIONS

Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (MRCPI) is achieved through examination and is highly regarded internationally.

MRCPI examinations are available in three specialties:

General Medicine
Paediatrics
Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Both the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and the Faculty of Occupational Medicine offer Membership examinations, which are essential components of Higher Specialist Training and valued by healthcare employers worldwide.

We also offer Diploma examinations in:

Clinical Psychiatry
Medicine of the Elderly
Obstetrics and Women’s Health

OUR KEY POLICY AREAS

We are committed to creating a healthier society.

As an independent organisation representing thousands of doctors, we are a united, powerful voice that can influence national health policies to ensure they are in the best interests of people’s health.

In recent years, we have published policy reports and advocated for policy and legislative change in a number of key areas, including:

Breastfeeding
Tobacco
Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on children
Assisted Suicide
Cancer Care during COVID-19
Health inequalities
Immunisation
Traffic Medicine
Open Disclosure
Cancer Screening