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Home  /   Staff  /   Researcher Profiles  /  Dr Rachel Rossiter

Dr Rachel Rossiter

Work Phone 02 4921 7708
Fax (02) 4921 6301
Email
Position Senior Lecturer
School of Nursing and Midwifery
The University of Newcastle, Australia
Office RW2-26, Richardson Wing

Biography

Dr Rachel Rossiter is a senior lecturer for the School of Nursing and Midwifery and Program Convenor for the Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner), Master of Mental Health Nursing and Master of Mental Health Nursing (Nurse Practitioner). She is endorsed as a Nurse Practitioner in Mental Health and credentialled as a mental health nurse. Her nursing career includes a broad range of clinical, teaching and research experience in both general and mental health. She has also worked in developing countries and in public mental health and general practice in rural areas within NSW.

She has over 20 years experience working as a nurse/therapist, 13 of these years working primarily with people with chronic autoimmune diseases and co-morbid mental health problems. This was followed by five years as a clinical nurse consultant in psychotherapy, during which time she was actively involved in clinical research related to the implementation of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.

She has recent clinical experience as a Dialectical Behaviour Therapist (a mindfulness based cognitive behavioural therapy) at the Centre for Psychotherapy and provides clinical supervision to mental health clinicians working in public mental health services and GP practices in rural NSW. Rachel is also an accredited Mental Health First Aid instructor and provides workshops for community organisations and nursing students. She has a particular interest in enabling practicing clinicians to further develop their clinical reasoning skills and reflective practice and to strengthen their capacity for therapeutic communication.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Health Science, University of Sydney, 2009
  • Graduate Certificate Practice of Tertiary Teaching, University of Newcastle, 2012
  • Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner), University of Newcastle, 2003
  • Master of Counselling, University of New England, 2001

Research

Research keywords

  • Phenomenology
  • Research Methods - Qualitative

Research expertise

Doctoral thesis: Exploring the Experience of Dialectical Behaviour Therapists: Challenging Therapeutic Pessimism Related to Borderline Personality Disorder

Currently supervising three RHD student projects in mental health.

Collaboration

My primary research interests are:

  • Mental health with a specific focus on developing nursing capacity in the use of therapeutic interventions, such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

  • Nurse Practitioner education

I am currently a member of the research team evaluating a Nurse Practitioner led model in Aged Care.

Languages

  • English

Fields of Research

Code Description Percentage
111000 Nursing 60
170101 Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology) 20
111799 Public Health And Health Services Not Elsewhere Classified 20

Centres and Groups

Centre

Group


Administrative

Administrative expertise

Program Convenor/coordination for 3 Masters programs including the coordination of staff in the preparation of course materials for courses offered across several programs.

Membership of committees: Faculty Board (Health),, School of Nursing and Midwifery Executive, Master of Mental Health Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) External Program Advisory and the Postgraduate Programs Committee.


Teaching

Teaching keywords

  • Advanced nursing practice
  • Clinical reasoning
  • Mental health nursing
  • On-line post-graduate course development
  • Online teaching

Teaching expertise

Post-graduate coursework courses for the Masters of Mental Health Nursing and nurse practitioner programs.