The school research community has expertise in a range of research skills and methodologies.
Big data and linkage
Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries
This paper pooled multiple genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke to investigate associations in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals. We identified association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses.
Researcher: Professor Jane Maguire
Co-design
This is a non-traditional research output and comes out of the work of Raising the Bar, an award winning program of co-designed research. It is a Co-design Kickstarter guide to co-design research, which was funded by the Mental Health Coordinating Council, Community Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Network.It is evidence-based and co-designed with people with lived experience, and was developed using a deliberative dialogue approach. It outlines an approach to co-design research that meets the call for 'nothing about us with out us' from consumer and disability movements and was developed in response to a need for a resource to support meaningful co-design research in the mental health and alcohol and other drug sectors. Raising the Bar is co-led by Brett Bellingham, a lived experience researcher in the Faculty of Health, and A/Prof Jo River, Faculty of Health and Northern Sydney Local Health District.
Researcher: Associate Professor Jo River
The second paper is an example of the research work of the Raising the Bar team that highlights the use of co-design methodology. It presents a study of a co-designed and co-evaluated research training program for people with lived experience of mental health challenges. The paper highlights challenges within the academy and health service regarding ethical involvement of people with lived experience in research.
Researcher: Associate Professor Jo River
Cohort studies
This paper used the healthcare records of a major public healthcare provider to map activity of a cohort of young people with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) to determine, in the first 2 years after the last planned appointment with paediatric diabetes services: (1) the number of planned and unplanned healthcare contacts and HbA1c measurements made; (2) factors linked to diabetes-related service use; and (3) factors predictive of the number of planned and unplanned service contacts, and of meeting the minimum recommended number of planned service contacts.
Researcher: Professor Lin Perry
This paper utilised longitudinal data from a cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to examine Predictors of parent use of a child health home-based record and associations with long-term child health/developmental outcomes. The analysis was narrowed to a routinely collected data from 2004 to 2016, of which different patterns of child health and developmental outcomes were identified.
Researcher: Dr Muhammad Chutiyami
Case control studies
This paper used a case control design to test for genetic variants associated between good and poor recovery outcomes in people who experienced an ischaemic stroke.
Researcher: Professor Jane Maguire
Delphi methods
This paper used a Delphi panel to determine the relative importance and feasibility of workplace health promotion interventions to promote and support the health of the Australian nursing and midwifery workforce.
Researcher: Professor Lin Perry
Data mining/interrogation
Leveraging twitter data to understand nurses' emotion dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic
The study is collaborative between the Data Science Institute and SoNM methodology used AI computerised learning models to analyse Twitter data.
Researcher: Associate Professor Suzanne Sheppard-Law
Cross sectional surveys
This paper utilised a nationally representative survey data from the survey of ‘Building knowledge base on population ageing in India’. We particularly focussed on older adults aged 60 years and above (N=9540). Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression and interaction models were used to explore the associated factors of living discordance.
Researcher: Dr Priya Saravanakumar
This paper profiled a cross-sectional study that explored nursing students' experiences of the care delivery practices witnessed during clinical placements and to provide descriptions of poor care. Participants included 256 undergraduate nursing students from three universities, two in the United Kingdom (UK) and one in Australia. Qualitative and quantitative data were descriptively analysed. Despite the generally positive findings, the participants provided multiple and recurring examples of poor nursing care which related to a lack of compassion, poor communication, unkind and indifferent provision of personal care, and patient safety. Reporting of poor care was viewed as difficult and many participants highlighted potential repercussions should they take this course of action.
Researcher: Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones
A cross-sectional survey of nursing students' patient safety knowledge
This paper described a study that examined final-year nursing students' levels of knowledge about key patient safety concepts using a cross-sectional design. Data collection was undertaken using a 45-item web-based patient safety quiz informed by the Patient Safety Competency Framework for Nursing Students. Participants included 2011 final-year nursing students from 23 Australian and New Zealand universities. Mean quiz scores were 65.23% with the highest scores achieved in the domains of person-centred care and therapeutic communication, and lowest scores for infection prevention and control and medication safety.
Researcher: Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones
Predictors of parent's knowledge of hospital-based pediatric falls
This study determined the individual characteristics and demographic factors associated with parents’ knowledge of hospital‐based paediatric falls and identified parent populations more likely to report low levels of fall‐related knowledge. The tool to measure parents’ knowledge was developed and validated by the first author Sheppard-Law, S., Brogan, F., Usherwood, F., Hunstead, P., & Shala, D. R. (2022) in three stages; item development, scale development and scale evaluation. A multivariate linear regression analyses was used to identify factors associated with parents falls knowledge. Several knowledge gaps were found. Parents of children having no risk of falls and parents who migrated to Australia were less likely to report a high level of knowledge. The sensitivity and specificity for the regression mode were 84.1% and 38.5%, respectively. Findings have implications for nursing practice in the way that future paediatric falls education is researched, developed, and evaluated. Measuring what parents don't know about hospital‐based falls provides an evidence‐based approach to developing falls education programs for parents that are relevant and targeted to parent's learning needs and population groups.
Researcher: Associate Professor Suzanne Sheppard-Law
Literature reviews (Umbrella review)
This paper utilised a comprehensive literature search to provide an overview of COVID-19 pandemic-related mortality, infection, symptoms, complications, comorbidities, and other aspects of physical health among healthcare workers globally.
The paper included Systematic reviews with or without meta-analyses that assessed the physical health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers. The methodological quality of eligible studies was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute's checklist for systematic reviews. The data were narratively synthesised in line with the ‘Synthesis Without Meta-analysis’ guideline.
Researcher: Dr Muhammad Chutiyami
Longitudinal studies
Predicting Return to Work Following Myocardial Infarction: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study
These longitudinal cohort studies examined return to work and health-related quality of life of patients with acute myocardial infarction in South Korea.
Researcher: Dr. Leila Gholizadeh
Meta-analysis
This paper assessed platelet glycoprotein 1balpha and Factor VII variants to assess risk of ischaemic stroke. This metanalysis provides strong evidence that the Factor VII R353Q gene polymorphism is not associated with ischemic stroke, that the Thr/Met polymorphism of GP1b alpha is associated with ischemic stroke in a dominant genetic model, and that the Kozak sequence polymorphism of GP1balpha may be close to another causative locus that is associated with ischemic stroke.
Researcher: Professor Jane Maguire
Mixed methods
This paper used a sequential mixed methods design to explore the acceptability of a workplace health promotion intervention embedded into a transition to practice (TTP) programme to assist new graduate nurses in establishing healthy dietary and physical activity (PA) behaviours from career commencement.
Researcher: Dr Elizabeth Brogan
Qualitative studies
This paper used a qualitative methodology to investigate the barriers and enablers to healthy eating and participation in physical activity for new graduate nurses during their first year of clinical practice, and to explore attitudes to participation in workplace health promotion programs.
Researcher: Dr Elizabeth Brogan
Nutritional care of elderly patients in acute care settings: A qualitative study
This qualitative interpretive description study explored barriers and facilitators to nutritional care of elderly patients in acute care settings.
Researcher: Dr. Leila Gholizadeh
Randomised controlled trials
This RCT examined the effects of foot reflexology, a non-invasive complementary therapy, on agitation and extubation time in patients following CABG surgery.
Researcher: Dr. Leila Gholizadeh
This paper profiled a randomised controlled trial that compared desktop virtual reality and face-to-face simulations and examined stress responses and performance outcomes for a team-based simulation on clinical deterioration. Participants included 120 medical and nursing students who were randomly assigned to participate in a 2-h simulation using either the desktop VR or face-to-face simulation with simulated patient. Despite being less immersive, the desktop virtual reality simulation was capable of inducing psychological and physiological stress responses by placing emotional, social, and cognitive demands on learners.
Researcher: Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones
Validation studies
These validation studies examined the cross-cultural psychometric properties of Depression Module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in a sample of cardiac patients from Iran and Pakistan.
Researcher: Dr. Leila Gholizadeh
Other (qualitative methodology)
This methodology of this study was underpinned by an Indigenous kaupapa Māori methodology. There were a total of 10 pakeke (older Māori adults) were interviewed and their narratives were thematically analysed in accordance with meanings derived from Māori worldviews.
Researcher: Dr Priya Saravanakumar
Masculinities, emotions and men's suicide
This paper highlights expertise in theorised life history methodology, which draws on qualitative narrative methodology and gender relations theory to demonstrate the multiple patterns of emotional practices in the lives of men who attempt suicide.
Researcher: Associate Professor Jo River
Using naturalistic inquiry to inform qualitative description
Overview of a qualitative descriptive research design informed by naturalistic inquiry
Researcher: Dr Natalie Cutler
Forensic mental health nurses provide care to address the needs of people who have mental illnesses across a range of diverse settings. This study described the use of a study that used Nominal Group Technique to achieve consensus on adaptations to the Clinical Reasoning Cycle with the aim of determining its suitability for use in forensic mental health units. Fourteen senior nurses from a state-wide Forensic mental Health (FMH) service participated.
Researcher: Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones
A pre-post evaluation of the ‘empathic care of a vulnerable older person’ e-simulation
Researcher: Distinguished Professor Tracy Levett-Jones