Kim Usher

Professor Kim Usher is an experienced mental health nurse and researcher. She is currently the Deputy Dean for Graduate Research Studies at the Cairns campus, Director of Research Education, and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Education and Research Capacity Building in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition. Kim is also a member of the Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research, a Fellow of the Cairns Institute and researcher with the Queensland Tropical Health Alliance (QTHA).

In-keeping with her background in mental health nursing, Kim’s research areas of interest include psychopharmacology, the psychosocial impact of emergencies and disasters, substance misuse and the impact on the family unit, family centred care and family carers, consumer experiences in health services, and workforce issues. External research funding received includes numerous consultancy grants from the World Health Organization and AusAID, APHCRI funding (2012-2015), Perpetual Trust grants, Queensland Nursing Council grants, and funding from other professional bodies and consumer groups.

Kim has published extensively in the nursing literature with well in excess of 100 peer reviewed publications and co-authored one book and many book chapters including ones on mental health nursing and research. She has supervised numerous PhD students to completion and continues to supervise a number of Higher Degree Research students undertaking studies in areas related to her research interests. Kim is also regularly sought after to examine PhD theses for other universities.

Kim is a current editor for Collegian and is a member of the editorial Board of Contemporary Nurse and Nursing and Health Sciences. She continues to review for many other nursing, health and workforce related journals. Kim is a past Chair of the Council of Deans of Nursing, is a member of the working party of the Asia-Pacific Emergency and Disaster Nursing Network (APEDNN), for whom she recently developed a course on the psychosocial impact of disasters now being used across the Asia-Pacific region, and has been a participant on many national and state level working groups.