Professor Paul Arbon

AM BSc, DipEd, Grad Dip Health Ed, MEd(Studies), PhD (Sydney), RN, FRCNA, MAIES
Professor of Nursing (Population Health)

Professor Paul Arbon has an academic career spanning some 19 years. He has managed and developed university-based undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programs and supervised research students throughout this period.

Paul is the inaugural Professor of Nursing (Population Health) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University.

He has expertise in clinical education and evaluation and a strong background in research approaches and research management. Current research focus on community capacity building and resilience and includes the study of triage decision-making, community resuscitation training, first aid, and innovative approaches to care such as the potential role of nurse practitioners in aged care and the role of nurses in responding to disaster.

Paul is recognised internationally for his research on mass gathering medicine. He is a Board Member of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine and a Member of the International Council of Nursing: Disaster Response Network Steering Committee. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing Australia and an Editorial Board Member of the journal Pre-Hospital and Disaster Medicine.

In addition, Paul is a Member of the Board of Directors of St John Ambulance Australia and the current Chief Commissioner of St John in Australia. In this role he has maintained active involvement in emergency care and disaster preparedness including completion of projects to evaluate the Commonwealth’s Triage Education Resource Book and the development of the Rural After Hours Triage Education Resource.

Professor Jeffrey Fuller

PhD (Flinders), MSc, GCPH, BN, DipAppSc(Nursing)
RN, Endorsed Mental Health Nurse
Professor of Nursing (Primary Health Care)

Jeff has worked for 27 years in multidisciplinary and academic public health settings, including as a manager in community health services. His primary health care research interests focus on mental health and other chronic conditions, Indigenous and cross cultural health servicing and public health program planning. His emphasis is on how health services can respond in flexible ways to underserved populations. During the last five years he has been a chief investigator on grants totalling $2.4 million.

His current scholarship is to understand service partnerships as a means to provide responsive and flexible primary health care. He is leading research on using social network mapping to describe the role of agricultural support workers in the rural mental health system. This role is now built into the Mental Health Blueprint of the NSW Farmers Association.

During 2007 and 2008 he led a project 'Mapping Aboriginal Health Partnerships' (MAHPET) that involved teams across NSW & SA (including Aboriginal research officers) to test the use of network analysis for service partnership improvement. MAHPET helped managers to problem solve management and planning issues, develop coordination capacity and identify the clinical role potential of Aboriginal staff. Over 2009 he co-led a systematic review of the effectiveness of service linkages in primary mental health care. There is scope to build on this work in the School of Nursing & Midwifery to examine the expanding roles of nurse practitioners and practice nurses.

He is currently a chief investigator on an NHMRC longitudinal study (2010-2013) of the mental health and associated community and household determinants of rural Australians.

Jeff's methodological expertise is qualitative and quantitative. He taught in the research and evaluation methods courses for the NSW Primary Health Care Research Evaluation & Development Collaboration. He has qualifications in Epidemiology & Biostatistics from the University of Newcastle. His qualitative PhD is in the cross-disciplinary fields of nursing and sociology, which examined the implementation of cross-cultural practice in health care.

Prior to Flinders, he was Director of Education & Acting Head, University of Sydney Department of Rural Health in Northern Rivers, NSW. Prior to that he was the Coordinator of Public Health Postgraduate Coursework Programs, Department of Public Health, University of Adelaide.

Jeff was a recent Board Director on the National Rural Health Alliance, the Alliance representative on the Mental Health Council of Australia and continues as the rural representative on the Australian Psychological Society Scholarship Panel. He is a past Branch Executive Member of the Public Health Association of Australia and of the South Australian Community Health Association.

 

Professor Eimear Muir-Cochrane

BSc Hons ( University of London ) RN, RMHN, Grad Dip Adult Ed, MNS, PhD (RMIT) FACMHN Credentialled mental health nurse.
Chair of Nursing (Mental Health Nursing)

Professor Eimear Muir-Cochrane is Chair of Nursing (Mental Health) within the School of Nursing & Midwifery. Eimear is also a Visiting Professor at City University, London; Australasian Editor for the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing (UK) and in 2007 won a Carrick Citation for ‘Sustained innovation in mental health nursing education in the last decade'.

She undertook her mental health nurse training at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospitals in London in the mid 1980's. Eimear has published multiple book chapters, monographs and papers in mental health since the early 1980's with funded research on seclusion, youth homelessness and mental illness and absconding. As a consultant, Eimear has been involved in evaluation and policy development commissioned by health departments in the Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia and is has senior roles within the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing.

'My research interests focus on issues of containment and conflict within acute psychiatric in-patient units (seclusion, forced medication, absconding and restraint). Eimear is also an expert member on the SA Seclusion Beacon Demonstration Steering Committee, a federally funded initiative, aiming to reduce seclusion of psychiatric patients across Australia. Currently I am examining records of absconding of detained patients from Glenside campus over a twelve month period with a view to improving risk assessment practices and data collection mechanisms. I am very interested in using mixed methods in research and building evidenced based practices from research'.

'The role of the Chair of Mental Health Nursing has a focus on practice development research and teaching practice. There are a number of opportunities I wish to exploit, particularly in relation to interdisciplinary teaching and learning, creative pedagogy and the use of peer support workers in mental health undergraduate and postgraduate education. The landscape of mental health practice and education is changing with traditional professional roles blurring and the emergence of new roles and practice domains. I intend to be collaborative and innovative in enhancing mental health nurses within the school and across the Faculty of Health Sciences'.

Prof Muir-Cochrane believes mental health nurse education need to deliver work-ready graduates. 'Our approach is to place a strong emphasis on developing students' critical thinking skills', she said. 'We also engage them in evidence-based learning activities and carefully designed clinical experiences'.

 

Professor Jan Paterson

PSM, RN, PhD (Flin), FCN
Professor of Nursing (Aged Care) - joint position between Flinders University and Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park

Teaching interests

Advanced continence nursing practice, gerontics; clinical nursing; urology/continence management; undergraduate nursing; higher degrees supervision.

Research interests

Urinary and faecal incontinence; clinical nursing research; Aboriginal health. 

Jan has been at Flinders University since December 1999 and at RGH since 1984 and is the inaugural Professor in Nursing (Aged Care). Jan’s research experience has been principally focused on improvement of health care delivery and outcomes in relation to her clinical speciality of the elderly person and incontinence but has also diversified into other areas, such as clinical governance and development of the aged care workforce. Her research covers both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and she has been involved in several cross disciplinary projects. 

Jan has played a significant role at a national level in raising the awareness of health professionals and the community of incontinence as a major health issue. This work has been recognised at many levels. She is a past national president of the Continence Foundation of Australia; the recipient of a Churchill fellowship, the Public service medal, Flinders University scholarship grant, Nurses Memorial Foundation of SA Research Scholarship, Royal College of Nursing, Joyce Wickham Memorial Scholarship grant, President’s Award - Continence Foundation of Australia, and the Premier of South Australia’s award for Nursing Excellence in Education. Jan is currently a member of the Continence Work Force Working Group for the Department of Health and Ageing, a member of the International Consultation on Incontinence – Subcommittee 21 (Products and Appliances) and vice chairperson of the International Continence Society subcommittee for nursing education.

Since her appointment at Flinders University she has developed a postgraduate education program on incontinence that has attracted international interest and recognition for its strategic response to workforce needs.  As part of the Federal government’s National Continence Strategy, Jan has just led a national team of researchers in the undertaking and successful completion of a research project to identify barriers to inclusion of continence into undergraduate nursing and midwifery programs and strategies to overcome them. 

A component of her joint clinical appointment with RGH is focused on working with its Nursing Executive to implement their strategic plan to foster a nursing research culture within the hospital. Jan has led, supervised, acted as a consultant or taken part as a member of the team on nursing research into a diverse range of health or safety issues for the patients at RGH. These include constipation, falls and nocturia, medication administration errors, sleep apnoea, transitional nursing home placement, lower limb amputation and interstitial cystitis. A current initiative to develop nursing research expertise at RGH is a four-day workshop which Jan convenes and teaches in with other nursing colleagues from Flinders University for beginner nurse researchers. The inaugural workshop was offered in 2005 and is being offered for the second time in 2006. Jan is also an elected member of the management committee for the Flinders University ASRI, Clinical Change & Health Care Research which is based at RGH. 

She is currently leading chief investigator on a research project which explores effective ways to recruit and retain registered nurses and develop the aged care workforce through a partnership in education between five industry partners and the School of Nursing & Midwifery.