Paul OConnor is a Personal Professor in the School of Medicine and a Human Factors Psychologist. He started as a Lecturer in Primary Care in January 2013 after coming to the National University of Ireland, Galway as a Senior Research Methodologist in July 2010. He is the Director of the Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation (ICAPSS), and Co-Director of the Diploma and Masters in Patient Safety and Simulation. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Aberdeenin 2002. Prior to coming to Ireland he was a Medical Service Corps Officer in the U.S. Navy for eight years. He served as an Assistant Professor in the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, Instructor in Aviation Psychology at the NavyMarine Corps School of Aviation Safety, andResearch Psychologist and Experimental Diver at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit. He qualified as a Navy Diving Officer (saturation and mixed gas), Aviation Safety Officer, and Aviation Experimental Psychologist. His research is concerned with improving human performance and safety in high risk work environments. He has carried out research in a wide range of high risk industries (e.g. civil aviation, offshore oil production), and the military (e.g. aviation, special forces). Most recently he has been carrying out research in healthcare with the aim of improving patient safety and quality of care through addressing the human factors that contribute to poor performance. He has received funding of 2 million Euros as a Principal Investigator, and 6 million Euros of funding fas a Co-Principal investigator. Prof O’Connor has authored more than 160 publications, with more than 10,000 citations of his work reported in googlescholar.

Patient safety; human factors; nontechnical skills ; medical simulation; team training; team performance; training evaluation; mishap investigation; safety climate; safety culture  

• Director of the Diploma/Masters in Healthcare Simulation and Patients Safety.
• Module leader on a range of research methods, simulation, human factors and patient safety courses.