Dr Caroline Dalton is a senior lecturer and researcher with clinical nursing experience in intellectual disability as a Registered Intellectual Disability Nurse (RNID) and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Behaviour Therapy. Dr Dalton holds a PhD in the area of end-of-life care and intellectual disability (2020), MSc in Learning Disabilities, BSc in Nursing Studies, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.  Dr Dalton lectures on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supervises MSc and PhD students. She is an active member of the Healthcare Ethics and End-of-life Care Research cluster within the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Inclusion Health Interest Group, within the College of Medicine and Health, at UCC. Dr Dalton engages in research relating to Intellectual Disability, Dementia, Acquired Brain Injury, End-of-Life Care, and Interdisciplinary Education. Dr Dalton has secured funding and contributed to multiple funded research projects focused on intellectual disability, dementia and providing quality end-of-life care for all. She currently contributes to “In -Touch” which is an Horizon Europe project focused on testing, through a cRCT in seven EU countries, a non-pharmacological palliative care intervention to improve comfort and the quality of life of people with advanced dementia living in care homes.

She represents the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC on the All-Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care Education Network and supervises  PhD/MSc Res students and postdoctoral researchers, primarily with a focus on palliative and end-of -life care and intellectual disability.  

My research interests include the areas of Intellectual Disability, Dementia, Acquired Brain Injury and End-of-Life Care, and Interdisciplinary Education.

Dr. Dalton currently teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has a particular interest in intellectual disability nursing, human rights, ethics and end-of-life care. From a physical health perspective, she has a specific interest in genetics and rare syndromes. She also contributes to modules focused on the professional development of nursing and nursing research. At the postgraduate level, she contributes to the Graduate Diploma in Public Health Nursing and to the MSc in Nursing, MSc Radiation Therapy, and Continued Professional Development Modules at University College Cork.