Prof. Diana Keatinge

Biography

I currently hold a co-sponsored position between the School of Nursing and Midwifery, the Faculty of Health, the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Local Health District. A component of this role is to encourage nurse clinicians to use research in their clinical practice, to undertake research relevant to nursing practice and to undertake research and/or course work higher degrees. The role also offers an opportunity to link Faculty and Health Service staff in education and research endeavours. My role also allows me to supervise research higher degree students and to identify and build my program of research. This program focuses on child and family health, nursing practice, community participation in health care and professional issues in nursing.

To date I have been principle supervisor for 4 PhD and 3 Masters candidates, and co-supervisor for 1 PhD and 1 Master candidate to successful completion of their theses. Currently I am principle supervisor for 5 PhD and 2 Masters candidates, and co-supervisor for a further PhD candidate. I have also examined 2 PhD, 1 Professional Doctorate, 3 Masters and 2 Bachelor (Hons) theses from a variety of Universities.

In the last 10 years I have lead 8 and been a member of a further 8 research teams. Four of these research teams have been lead by nurse clinicians who are novice researchers so my role on these teams has been an advisory one. All except 2 of these studies have been funded and all have been consistent with my research program.

From 2004-2007, I was a member of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Council and remain a member of HMRI’s ABC (children’s research) Network. Since 2000, I have been a member of the Executive Hunter Children’s Research Executive Committee. In addition to this I have been a Board Member for the University of Newcastle’s Family Action Centre since 2002 and, in that capacity have been able to support research development and opportunities within that Centre.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Technology Sydney, 1995
• Graduate Certificate in TESOL, Macquarie University
• Master of Administration, Kuring-Gai College of Advanced Education
• Graduate Diploma of Social Administration, Kuring-Gai College of Advanced Education

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Research

Research keywords

• Aged/Palliative Care Nursing Practice
• Consumer Participation in Health Care
• Paediatric/Child and Family Nursing Practice
• Professional issues in nursing

Research expertise

Studies to date have spanned a range of research particularly into child and family acute and community health care, consumer participation in health care/service delivery and professional nursing issues. This research has focused on topics relating to introduction of a neonatal nurse practitioner roles, paediatric telephone triage systems, paediatric discharge planning, nurse/family partnerships in the delivery of child health care and nurses' involvement of consumers in health care. In addition, my research has focused on professional issues relating to nursing, including professional boundaries and competencies for the advanced nurse. Prior to commencing a more focused research program in paediatric/child and family health I had the opportunity to conduct studies which reflect consumer participation as well as nursing care in aged and palliative care. From a method perspective my expertise is in qualitative methods, particularly Action Research and Ethnography/Critical Ethnography.

Collaboration

In 2001, with colleagues, I initiated the Centre for Education and Nursing Research in Child Health (the ENRiCH Centre). The Centre is a partnership between the School of Nursing and Midwifery, the Faculty of Health, the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Local Health District and Kaleidoscope – Hunter Children’s Health Network. The principle aim of this Centre is to support and facilitate nursing and inter-professional research as well as nursing education in child health. It now offers small grants to support child health nursing and nurse lead inter-professional research conducted within the Hunter New England Local Health District. The Centre also offers scholarships to support nurses working within Kaleidoscope to attend conferences and seminars.

A second collaboration is with the Children’s Hospital Westmead (CHW). Currently this involves me being a Co-Chief Investigator for a study titled ‘Enhancing family – centred care to improve the health and psychological outcomes of hospitalised children’ This study has been conducted within the context of NSW Health’s Essentials of Care program. A second element of this collaboration involves reviewing CHW research grants and scholarships.

From an international perspective collaboration with the Faculty of Nursing, Khon Kaen University has resulted in my supervision, as principle supervisor, of 2 PhD candidates from that University. In addition 2 members of Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Nursing have been field supervisors for these PhD students. This collaboration has also resulted in a number of opportunities for an exchange of ideas relating to research and other topics.

Fields of Research

Code	Description	Percentage
111000	Nursing	70
160500	Policy And Administration	20
220100	Applied Ethics	10

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Hunter Medical Research Institute

Group

• Hunter Medical Research Institute - Pregnancy and Reproduction

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

• Australian Confederation of Paediatric and Child Health Nurses
• College of Nursing, (Fellow)
• Family Action Centre Board
• Royal College of Nursing Autralia (Fellow)
• Uniting Care Aged Regional Board - Hunter, Central Coast, New England
• Ronald McDonald House in the Hunter Board.

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Member - Hunter Children's Research Foundation
• Hunter Medical Research Council

National & International Standards Committees.

• Vice Chancellor's nominee on the NSW Dept. of Education and Training Post Graduate Course Work Committee

Awards

University of Newcastle Post-Graduate Student Supervisor of the Year Award

2004	University of Newcastle Post-Graduate Student Supervisor of the Year Award University of Newcastle (Australia) Nominated by peers/students for supervision of research higher degree students.

Invitations

Health Care for the Elderly Yamaguchi University, Japan (Conference Presentation - non published.)	2000
See Thesis Section See Thesis Section, Australia (External Examiner.)	2007
Mosby's Medical,Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary Publisher Mosby/Elsivier, Australia (Invited consultant reviewer for paediatric/child and family health dictionary entries)	2007
The clinical narrative - A nursing perspective. Australasian Urological Nurses Society Conference, Australia (Invited paper)	2004
Practice development/Let's get going. Australasian Paediatric, Youth and Family Nursing Practice Development Conference: Let's Get Started , Australia (Keynote address conference presentation)	2007

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Administrative

Administrative expertise

Since joining the University I have been a member of a number of University, and School committees including the research management committee (as school representative at University and School level), School Executive and Post-Graduate course work committees. I also have expertise as a Board member currently on three Boards: the University's Family Action Centre Board, The Regional Board for Uniting Care Aged Hunter, Central Coast and New England and Ronald McDonald House in the Hunter Board. In the clinical component of my role I am also Director of the Centre for Education and Nursing Research which is based with the Hunter New England Health Service. I am also a member of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Council.

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Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Clinical Supervision
• Family Centred Nursing
• Leadership and Management (Health/Nursing)
• Leading Change in Practice
• Research Methods
• Research Overview

Teaching expertise

My teaching expertise lies in the area of research, leadership and management (nursing and health more generally) and paedatric/child and family nursing. Topics relating to research particularly focus on qualitative research methods, the research process and dissemination of outcomes. In relation to leadership and management I have designed, developed, taught and co-ordinated three post graduate courses for online delivery: Leading Through Practice (offered until 2005 in the School's Master programs), Leading Change in Practice and Leadership and Management in Practice (offered online since 2006 in Masters programs). In addition, expertise in the area of paediatric/child and family health nursing has enabled me to design and develop, in collaboration with the nurses in the Hunter New England Health Service, post-graduate courses in a range of topics, 6 of which are currently offered online as electives in the Scholl of Nursing and Midwifery Master's programs.