Dr Vera Mc Carthy is a Senior Lecturer and the Vice Dean of Graduate Studies in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC. Vera holds a PhD in Occupational Epidemiology, where the focus of her doctoral work was on psychosocial and physiological job characteristics and negative health outcomes including chronic illness (cardiovascular disease). Vera has been PI and co-applicant on a number of HSE funded projects, Core Partner on HRB funded research and Cork co-PI on an EU funded clinical trial. Her area of interest is Health Services Research. She has also researched areas such as chronic illness, particularly in relation to integrated care and self-management support. Vera is currently a Core Partner on a HRB funded Collaborative Doctoral Programme in Chronic Disease Prevention, Cork PI on the HRB funded Programme of Research on Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix team and an Irish Investigator on the Horizon 2020 funded Magnet4Europe project. These projects have allowed Vera to build important collaborative relationships with clinically based professionals and international academics. Additionally, Vera is working on a Cochrane Review on nurse physician substitution.

Dr Mc Carthy teaches on a range of different topics. These include health promotion, professional conduct, applied research, data collection protocol design/standard operating procedures, (healthy) ageing, data management, statistical analysis, practical skills for nurses, patient safety, contemporary issues in healthcare.