Jane has worked as a Physiotherapist in the acute hospital setting, covering orthopaedics, neuro rehab, medical & surgical wards, and ICU. She specialised in Musculo-skeletal physiotherapy and worked in Private Practice in Dublin, Limerick, and Clare.

Qualifications:

BSc in Physiotherapy (University College Dublin). MSc in Physiotherapy (University College London). Diploma in Clinical Teaching (University of Galway).

Teaching experience:
She was Clinical Tutor for UCD students at the Mater Hospital for several years and did part-time lecturing at the University of Limerick in Functional Anatomy and Musculo-skeletal assessment & treatment.

She joined the Practice Education Team in the School of Allied Health in UL in 2011 and works there as a Regional Placement Facilitator of Physiotherapy students – supporting students in a variety of placement sites and across the lifespan.

She was Chair of the Annual Practice Education Symposium committee from 2015-2020 which provides training to Practice Educators across 4 disciplines nationwide. She continues to work closely with colleagues to deliver online and in-person training workshops for Physiotherapy Practice Educators who support UL students.

During COVID-19, she supported students to assess patients with a range of neurological conditions virtually and to run exercise classes to meet the needs of these patients.

From 2015-2019, Jane worked with Community Partners in Limerick to run 8-week community placements for final year physiotherapy students. Since 2023, with the alignment of the curricula across disciplines, these placements have become inter-professional. Practice Education staff and students from Occupational Therapy, Human Dietetics & Nutrition, and Physiotherapy work closely with community partners to deliver educational programmes on health, well-being and physical exercise in an innovative way, to meet the needs of these groups across the lifespan.

 

Professional memberships:
Member of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists and registered with CORU (PT 030910)

 

Publications

 

INHED Conference (University of Limerick online March 2022) Oral presentation:

“A comparison of the perceived attainment of graduate skills and attributes on a telehealth versus onsite physiotherapy student placement”

Devenney K, Kavanagh J, Keating L, O’Donnell M.

School of Allied Health, University of Limerick

 

HSCP Practice Education Conference (Dublin, July 2018). Poster: “Preparing for Innovative Community Physiotherapy placements”. Kavanagh, J., & Murray, E., O’Donnell M.

Towards Unity for Health Conference (UL August 2018). Poster presentation: “Innovative Learning in Community Physiotherapy placements”. Kavanagh, J., & Murray, E.

Inter-professional Learning Conference (Dublin Castle, October 2015) “The benefits and challenges of student-led clinics: towards IPE.” Workshop presentation.

 

10th International Conference on Practice Teaching and Field Education in Health and Social Work (Glasgow, April 2014) “Student Education: ownership, initiative & inter-professional development.” Workshop presentation.

 

1st International Conference on Movement Dysfunction (Edinburgh, Sept 2000) Presented: “Is there a positional fault at the inferior tibio-fibular joint in patients with acute or chronic ankle sprains compared to normals?” Kavanagh J.