Graduate Research Theses

The Department of Nursing is proud to recognise the breadth of work by our graduate research students.

The tables below are a historic record of all theses completed by students of the department and include names of supervisors and links to the full thesis where available. Prospective students are encouraged to use these both to seek supervisors, and to explore the vast range of topics in nursing research.

Graduate research at the Department of Nursing

Applying for graduate research

PhD Theses

2020+ Doctor of Philosophy

Student Name	Link to thesis	Principal Supervisor	Completion
Priscilla Gates	A Longitudinal Feasibility Study Exploring Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Aggressive Lymphoma	Meinir Krishnasamy	2022
Nicole Kinnane	Exploring post-treatment care for women with high-intermediate and high-risk endometrial cancer: A mixed methods study	Marie Gerdtz	2022
Polly Dufton	Unplanned Emergency Department Presentations by Cancer Patients Receiving Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy	Meinir Krishnasamy	2021
Chi-Yin Kao	Development of a guideline to inform the content of a Summarized Patient Information Form regarding cancer clinical trials	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2015
Suzanne Kapp	Self-treatment of wounds: a mixed methods study	Professor Nick Santamaria	2016

2015-2019 Doctor of Philosophy

Student Name	Link to thesis	Principal Supervisor	Completion
Catherine Daniel	An evaluation of violence risk screening at triage in one Australian emergency department	Professor Marie Gerdtz	2015
Chi-Yin Kao	Development of a guideline to inform the content of a Summarized Patient Information Form regarding cancer clinical trials	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2015
Suzanne Kapp	Self-treatment of wounds: a mixed methods study	Professor Nick Santamaria	2016
Jaga Shrestha-Ranjit	What is the experience of Bhutanese refugee women in accessing health services in the process of resettling in New Zealand? An ethnographic qualitative study	Professor Elizabeth Patterson	2016
Naomi Brockenshire	Clowns in the midst: understanding clown doctors at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne	Professor Fiona Newall	2018
Dianne Crellin	Procedural pain assessment in infants and young children: identifying a suitable behavioural assessment scale	Professor Nick Santamaria	2018
Natasha Elizabeth Smallwood	Palliative care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: understanding current practices and exploring a new model of integrated care	Professor Terrence O'Brien	2018
Sacha Petersen	Bedtime Stories: An exploratory study of the reasons for, experience and impact of, sleep disturbance for children with cerebral palsy and their parents	Professor Fiona Newall	2019
Rebecca K Thorton	Memory-making in neonatal end-of-life care	Professor Louise Harms	2019

2010-2014 Doctor of Philosophy

Student	Thesis	Principal supervisor	Completion
Valerie Goodwin	The role of the psychiatric nurse in enhancing consumer and carer participation in mental health services*	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2010
Misel Trajanovska	A study of non-prescription medicine use in young children: parental practices of symptom management, advice-seeking, and healthcare provider communication*	Professor Linda Johnston	2010
Rosemary Charleston	Reframing clinical governance: policy and practice in aged persons mental health	Professor Rosalind Hurworth	2011
Janet Choo	Electronic inpatient medication record system: impact and effectiveness*	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2011
Kate Claydon-Platt	Identifying people with diabetes at increased risk of medication-related problems*	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2011
Greta Goh	Exploring the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among people with cancer: a mixed-methods approach to instrument development	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2011
Kristy Koehne	Talking to adolescent clients about emerging borderline personality disorder: a discourse analysis of clinician and client perspectives	Associate Professor Bridget Hamilton	2011
Jill Stow	The development of knowledge and self-management practices in people with a new diagnosis of epilepsy*	Professor Patricia Dunning	2011
Siok Tan	Coping and well-being in caregivers of people with Parkinson's Disease	Associate Professor Allison Williams	2011
Sandra Braaf	Examining healthcare professionals' communication across the perioperative pathway to improve patient safety	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2012
Thurayya Eid	Nurses' clinical decision-making of post-operative pain assessment and management practices in Saudi Arabia*	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2012
Derith Harris	Trapped in isolation: the transition of forensic patients to community living	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2012
Wei Liu	An ethnographic investigation of communication processes for medication management in hospital spatial environments	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2012
Stephen McKeever	Anaesthetic-mediated changes in the electroencephalogram in the paediatric population	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2012
Deidre Morgan	The ordinary becomes extraordinary: the occupation of living whilst dying	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2012
Anna Ugalde	Development of an instrument to measure self-efficacy in informal caregivers of people with advanced cancer	Associate Professor Penelope Schofield	2012
Anna Boltong	Exploring the nature and impact of taste dysfunction in people receiving chemotherapy	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2013
Natalie Diepenhorst	A novel approach for investigating GPCR/ligand interactions: analysis of the secondary binding site within RXFP1	Professor Ross Bathgate	2013
Jin Lee	The quality of relationships in the comparison of cultural influence on the psychosocial well-being of university students in Australia	Professor Lynette Joubert	2013
Nicole Kiss	Identifying patients at high nutritional risk and assessing the feasibility of medical nutrition therapy in patients receiving radiotherapy for lung cancer	Professor Meinir Krishnasamy	2014
Sally Lima	A framework for developing competence	Associate Professor Bridget Hamilton	2014
Carmela Salomon	Seeking Balance' - Australian consumer experiences of antipsychotic discontinuation: a mixed methods study	Associate Professor Bridget Hamilton	2014
*digital copy unavailable

2005-2009 Doctor of Philosophy

Student	Thesis	Principal supervisor	Completion
Mary Carolan	Doing it properly: transition to motherhood for first-time mothers 35 years and above	Professor Sioban Nelson	2005
Alicia Evans	Discourses of anxiety in nursing practice: a psychoanalytic case study*	Professor Judith Parker	2005
Carola Hullin Lucay-Cossio	Mobile computing and nursing: administering medication at the point of care*	Professor Sioban Nelson	2005
Jacqueline Richmond	Is there an association between health professionals' hepatitis C knowledge and attitudes and the care they provide for people with hepatitis C?*	Professor Patricia Dunning	2005
Robin Riley	Snap-shots of live theatre: rethinking the governance of operating room nursing through a discourse analysis of communication processes*	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2005
Miyuki Takase	The relationship between images of nursing and person-environment fit	Professor Phil Maude	2005
Allison Williams	Continuity of care and general wellbeing of patients with comorbidities requiring acute care	Professor Patricia Dunning	2005
Catherine Barrett	Improving the quality of patient care through a systemic approach to emancipatory practice development	Professor Phil Maude	2006
Stephen Elsom	Pushing the boundaries: expanded practice in community mental health nursing*	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2006
Carolyn Lethborg	The role of meaning in adjustment to cancer*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2006
Denise Harrison	A Study of Pain Management Practices During the Prolonged Hospitalisation of Infants	Professor Linda Johnston	2007
Louise Rose	Mechanical Ventilation and Weaning in Australia and New Zealand*	Professor Linda Johnston	2008
Sharon Kinney	A Study of a Systems Approach to Reducing Mortality and Morbidity in a Tertiary Paediatric Hospital*	Professor Linda Johnston	2008
Bridget Hamilton	Shifting subjects: an ethnography of nurses' assessment practice in acute inpatient psychiatry*	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2008
Siew Koh	Fall prevention at acute care hospitals in Singapore: a strategy for implementation of clinical practice guidelines*	Professor Linda Johnston	2008
Wendy Pollock	Critically ill pregnant and postnatal women in Victoria: characteristics, severity of illness and the provision of acute health services*	Professor Sioban Nelson	2008
Carolyn Westall	Kept in the dark: the experience of resolution from postnatal depression*	Professor Phil Maude	2008
Robyn Aitken	Internationalizing nursing education in Central Java, Indonesia: a postcolonial ethnography	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2009
Tracy Ayre	Nursing service in Singapore: a multi-method study of patient, nurse and organisational outcomes*	Professor Marie Gerdtz	2009
Meng Fong	Effective clinical supervision: an evaluative phased study in Singapore on newly-qualified nurses, their preceptors and nurse managers/nurse clinicians*	Professor Linda Johnston	2009
Madonna Grehan	Professional aspirations and consumer expectations: Nurses, midwives, and women's health	Professor Sioban Nelson	2009
Donna Milne	The perceptions of pallative care instrument (PPCI): development and validation in an advanced cancer setting*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2009
Gaye Moore	Assessing risk factors and service needs for homelessness: perspectives of homeless people and health service providers*	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2009
Fiona Newall	Unfractionated heparin therapy in paediatrics	Professor Paul Monagle	2009
*digital copy unavailable

2000-2004 Doctor of Philosophy

Student	Thesis	Principal supervisor	Completion
Marie Heartfield	Governing recovery: a discourse analysis of hospital length of stay	Professor Judith Parker	2002
Peter Hudson	Support for family caregivers of dying cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2002
Arthur Lammers	The reforms to mental health and their impact on the empowerment of consumers and carers	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2002
Phillip Maude	From lunatic to client: a history/nursing oral history of Western Australians who experienced a mental illness	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2002
Sally Whyte	Looking for difference among specialty nurses in Australia: influences upon choice of clinical specialty*	Professor Judith Parker	2002
Sharon De Graves	Living with hope and fear: The uncertainty of childhood cancer after relapse*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2003
Rachael Duncan	Shaped to care: a study of subjectivity and emotional labour in nursing theory and practice.	Professor Sioban Nelson	2003
Marie Gerdtz	Triage nurses' clinical decision making: a multi-method study of practice, processes and influences	Professor Tracey Bucknall	2003
Monica Nebauer	Providing care for people with Dementia: changing contexts and nursing practices*	Professor Judith Parker	2003
Alison Hutchinson	Utilisation of research evidence by nurses in a multidisciplinary clinical setting*	Professor Linda Johnston	2004
Anne McIntosh	Long term seizure outcome after temporal lobectomy*	Professor Judith Parker	2004
*digital copy unavailable

Masters Theses

2009-2017 Master of Philosophy

Student	Link to thesis	Principal Supervisor	Completed
Mark O'Connor	Sedation of mechanically ventilated patients in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units: nurses' and doctors' practices and opinions	Professor Elizabeth Manias	2009
Priscilla Gates	A pilot study to test a novel, nurse-led intervention to enhance the general health status of survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma attending a multidisciplinary, haematology late effects clinic	Professor Meinir Krishnasamy	2013
Michelle Goldsworthy	Family function and congenital heart disease	Associate Professor Sharon Kinney	2013
Mary Duffy	How do patients with lung cancer experience radiation induced oesophagitis?	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2016
David A Jackson	An exploration of the nursing role in a telehealth based stroke secondary prevention program	Associate Professor Stephen Elsom	2017

2010-2015 Master of Nursing (Research)

Student	Link to thesis	Principal Supervisor	Completed
Catherine Daniel	Mechanical restraint in acute health - identifying staff perceptions, alternatives and the sustainability of restraint reduction initiatives	Associate Professor Stephen Elsom	2011
Grant Phillips	Mental health nurses' decision making for people presenting to the emergency department with deliberate self-harm	Professor Marie Gerdtz	2012
*digital copy unavailable

2005-2009 Master of Nursing (Research)

Student	Link to thesis	Principal Supervisor	Completed
Susan Henderson	The influence of the mental health component of a Bachelor of Nursing course on undergraduate nursing students*	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2005
Marijke Mitchell	A multimedia approach to alleviating anxiety in children requiring hospitalisation and their families*	Professor Linda Johnston	2005
Fiona Newall	Warfarin therapy in infants and children.	Professor Linda Johnston	2005
Anne-Marie Scully	To speak for the dead, to protect the living*	Professor Sioban Nelson	2005
Linda Clark	The haematology nurse practitioner role: Advanced nursing Practice or medical substitution?*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2006
Timothy Brown	Transcranial magnetic stimulation; self-reported beliefs and attitudes of recipients before, during and after treatment*	Professor Phil Maude	2007
Michael John	An evaluation of an Acute Cognitive Therapy programme for suicidal individuals in an emergency department*	Professor Phil Maude	2007
Lisa Lynch	A study of the clinical supervision implementation strategy for nurses at a rural health care organisation in Victoria*	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2007
Rosemary Brown	Exploring 'bodywork': An ethnographic study of palliative care nursing*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2008
Gareth Jones	How can a professional development programme of aggression management be designed, delivered and evaluated within a healthcare organisation?	Professor Phil Maude	2008
Wendy Purcell	Nurses' dry weight assessment of chronic haemodialysis patients*	Associate Professor Allison Williams	2008
Peter Zahnow	The Imagery Project: The experience of gay men living with HIV and learning relaxation and guided imagery techniques as a self-management strategy*	Professor Phil Maude	2008
Anne-Maree Mahon	Doctors', Nurses', and Patients' Perceptions of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner role	Associate Professor Stephen Elsom	2009
Dianne Saward	Near-Peer Facilitation: Changing Cancer Pain Screening*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2009
*digital copy unavailable

2000-2004 Master of Nursing (Research)

Student Name	Link to Thesis	Principal Supervisor	Completion
Donna Milne	When cancer won't go away: The needs and experiences of family caregivers*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2000
Denise Brooks	Bone tired: Fatigue in Advanced Cancer*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2002
Denise Harrison	The effectiveness of 25% oral sucrose in the reduction of pain associated with heel lancing in the hospitalised infant: a randomised controlled trial.*	Professor Linda Johnston	2002
Kin Lee	Effective management of central venous catheter devices in paediatric patients in the acute care setting: a systematic review.*	Professor Linda Johnston	2002
Karen Quinn	Effectiveness of screening instruments in indentifying psychosocial distress in adult patients with cancer.*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2003
Sian Bill	A profile of family-centered care in two hospitals: The Nottingham and Melbourne experience*	Professor Linda Johnston	2004
Rosemary Charleston	Mental health nurses' and undergraduate nursing students' views on preceptorship in the mental health setting*	Associate Professor Brenda Happell	2004
Dianne Crellin	The influence of speciality on paediatric triage decisions: A comparison between general and paediatric emergency nurses*	Professor Linda Johnston	2004
Suzanne Grogan	When mum or dad has cancer: Parenting issues in the context of parents with advanced cancer*	Professor Sanchia Aranda	2004
Lorinda James	Servants of the asylum, asylum attendants at the Cambridge Lunatic Asylum. 1858-1901*	Professor Sioban Nelson	2004
Kay McCauley	Midwives and mental health: An exploration of midwives' perceptions of their ability to work with women with mental illness*	Professor Phil Maude	2004
Joan Ostaszkiewicz	Timed voiding and habit retraining for the management of urinary incontinence in adults: Systematic reviews of effectiveness*	Professor Linda Johnston	2004
Kathleen Shannon	The assessment of pain in the critical care area.*	Professor Tracey Bucknall	2004
*digital copy unavailable