Joint Research Strategy
Core Areas of Research Interest
School of Health and School of Rural Medicine
- Health workforce training & retention with an emphasis on patent-centered care.
- Improving health and well-being of rural and regional communities including indigenous communities.
- Developing sustainable partnerships within and across the health sector. These include local, regional, national and international partnerships.
The above areas of interest align both with the UNE-wide research initiative on rural resurgence as well as with UNE’s vision statement: Achieving local, regional and global impact.
Health Service and Health Promotion Evaluation
The research includes projects that investigate organisational change in the health sector, evaluate health promotion programs, as well as examine health care delivery and outcomes of health services.
Other research includes a labour force study on aged care in Hong Kong, evaluation of nurse-provided smoking addiction care and programs for hospital patients, and the role of nursing unit managers.
Several of these projects have received funding from both the private sector and Health Service agencies.
Nursing Practice
Research includes, for example, studies examining the role and experiences of graduate nurses, nursing workforce issues, pain management, clinical competencies, palliative care, evaluation of best practices, and nursing education strategies. Several of these projects have received funding and a number of publications and conference papers have resulted from nursing research at UNE.
Counselling Research
Counselling research interests include: living with a life threatening illness, grief counselling, counselling of couples, narratives of counsellors and clients, counsellor competence evaluation project (CCEP), spirituality and counselling, and gender issues in counselling. Cultural diversity in counselling, counsellor development and the impact of suicide.
Aged Care/Gerontology
This area of research includes a number of projects which evaluate the delivery of aged care and the experience of being an aged person in receipt of care. Other projects include the study of ageism in society, promoting healthy ageing, evaluating the benefits of an oral health promotion program of elderly migrants, elder abuse, women and ageing, and the sexuality of older people.
A collaborative agreement to conduct cross-cultural studies and jointly offer a PhD program has been reached with researchers at the Centre on Aging, University of Victoria, Canada and the Hong Kong Institute of Gerontology.
Women's Health
Academics in the School have been collaborating with colleagues at University of Newcastle nvestigating a broad range of women's health issues in collaboration with the federally funded Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Areas include smoking, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, miscarriages, hysterectomies, elder abuse of women, quality of life, mental health, violence and alcohol use, health of rural and remote women.
Provide WHA link
Sexual Health
This research encompasses diverse projects with topics of investigation including the sexually transmissible infections (STI), homophobia, rural sexual health issues, the politics of HIV/AIDS, predictors of safe sex among male sex workers and their clients, women and STIs, the clinical management of STI and HIV/AIDS, and the sexuality of young and older people. Several of these projects have received funding from the National Health & Medical Research Council, the NSW Health Department and the Australian Research Council.
Disabilities
The research includes investigation into development disability and ageing issues for persons with diability and their carers in rural NSW. Other research projects developing links which include an ongoing collaborative project using linked databases, to assess life expenctancy of people with ID and those with DS, cancer incidence and use of preventive services such as mamography and mental health issues. Some of these projects have been funded by health agencies.
Other areas of research
Alternative Medicine, Aboriginal Health, Environmental Health, Public Health Outcomes and Rural Health.