College of Healthcare Sciences

Lisa Shaw

Doctor of Philosophy (Health)
lisa.shaw@jcu.edu.au

Stephen Yu

Senior Lecturer, Nursing and Midwifery
stephen.yu@jcu.edu.au

Karen Smith

Lecturer, Nursing and Midwifery
karen.smith6@jcu.edu.au

Chae Rose

Lecturer, Psychology
chae.rose@jcu.edu.au

Helen Petsky

Head, Nursing and Midwifery
helen.petsky@jcu.edu.au

Lucy Bird

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
lucy.bird@jcu.edu.au

Alyssia Merrick

Doctor of Philosophy (Health)
alyssia.merrick@jcu.edu.au

Sandra Dash

Lecturer
sandra.dash@jcu.edu.au

The acute effect of occlusion exercise on muscle performance in patients with severe osteoarthritis

Kenji Doma - Sports & Exercise Science

01 Nov 2024 - 02 Nov 2026

Osteoarthritis is the most common arthritis worldwide, causing pain, limited mobility, and reduced quality of life. Strengthening exercises are commonly used to manage osteoarthritis, but their inappropriate application may exacerbate symptoms. Emerging evidence suggests that blood flow restriction (BFR) exercises offer optimal training benefits with minimal symptom aggravation. However, research on acute BFR exercise responses in patients living with osteoarthritis is limited. Understanding acute BFR responses can guide exercise selection for osteoarthritis management and research direction. This study aims to investigate the impact of BFR exercises on muscle function and blood metabolites in knee osteoarthritis, contributing to better management approaches.

HeARTS: pHysical Activity factoRs among people living with mulTiple sclerosiS. A global study

Moira Smith - Physiotherapy

10 Jan 2025 - 31 Dec 2026

This survey coordinated by the European Network for Research and Best Practice in MS Rehabilitation (RIMS), aims to understand what is the self-reported physical activity level in persons with MS across all disability levels and across Countries within and beyond Europe. We would like to learn more about whether people with MS are physically active or not, and topics related to this such as living context, work activity, and individual motivation. These aspects will help health professionals to better understand factors associated with physical activity in MS in order to promote and facilitate it among people with MS by creating more realistic and more useful programs.

Preparing 'Healthcare Scientists' for placement: Developing a -pre-placement training workshop to enhance graduate readiness in science-based allied health disciplines

Kenji Doma - Sports & Exercise Science

01 Jul 2025 - 01 Jul 2026

This project aims to improve the readiness of healthcare science degree students, specifically in psychology and sport & exercise science, for placement and post-degree careers through a pre-placement training workshop. Based on interviews with students and placement supervisors, the workshop will address identified skill gaps (e.g., career awareness, communication, cultural responsiveness) currently missing in our academic curriculum. Information from these focus groups with students and placement supervisors will be incorporated into the pre-placement training workshop, and evaluated for its efficacy preparing students for placement. If successful, we will look to adapt the workshop for other healthcare or science-based disciplines.

Leveraging AI simulations for allied health education: Pilot study for Psychology

Klaire Somoray - Psychology

01 Jul 2025 - 30 Jun 2026

IDA (Interactive Dialogue Agent) is a customisable LLM-powered virtual patient simulator with speech capabilities. IDA is specifically designed for healthcare education with built-in safety measures. This project will test IDA with psychology students to determine its effectiveness before expanding to other healthcare disciplines, ultimately providing students college-wide (and university-wide) dynamic and scalable simulations.

Youth Alcohol Use in the Digital Age: Harnessing longitudinal cohort data and living systematic reviews to inform prevention and harm minimisation

Sam Teague - Psychology

01 Mar 2026 - 28 Feb 2031

Alcohol is a leading cause of disease burden in young Australians aged 15-24 years. The proliferation of digital technology and social media have seen concerning increases in access to alcohol among young people, yet the impacts of this accessibility are largely unknown. This project aims to identify and evaluate the risk and impact of increased access to alcohol on the physical and mental health of young Australians. We will do this through two scientifically rigorous methodologies. First, we will extend a 16-year Australian longitudinal cohort study that has assessed children’s health and development since birth, to create a new, in-depth survey in adolescence. This survey will be co-designed with consumers and partners, and will focus on emerging methods of how young people access alcohol, the influence of social media, and associated patterns of use and alcohol-related harm. The cohort was originally established to identify the antecedents of alcohol use in children and families, and thus has comprehensive data on individual, family, peer and community risk and protective factors that will inform key prevention targets in early development. This work will be complemented by a series of ‘living’ systematic reviews examining the impact of increased access to alcohol use on adolescent and young adult physical and mental health. We will use innovative artificial intelligence software to enable rapid updates as new evidence emerges, and to facilitate more seamless knowledge translation through our leading national partners headspace, the Australian Drug Foundation and ARACY. This project aligns with the key goals of the funding scheme and the Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities of: (1) preventative/public health research; (2) priority populations (young people); and (3) consumer-driven research. Results will inform approaches to public health, prevention and harm minimisation to reduce the adverse health impacts of alcohol on young Australians.

Implementation and evaluation of CONNECT: a framework to build social presence and connectedness to content, peers and staff in a 100% online postgraduate course.

Tracey Gooding - Keypath Nursing & Midwifery

01 Jun 2023

A systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of the CONNECT framework in guiding teaching staff to use evidence-based strategies to promote a sense of belonging, social interaction, and community in online postgraduate students.

The effects of a simplified rubric design on marker experience: A pilot study

Tracey Gooding - Keypath Nursing & Midwifery

01 Jun 2024

The aim of this pilot study is to examine the effect of reducing the number of performance levels and narrowing the grade range for each performance level within an assessment rubric compared to a standard assessment rubric on experience, efficiency, and inter-rater reliability among markers assessing student assessments in a postgraduate course.

Strengthening the resilience of ICU nurses: Co-designing an online education intervention

Tracey Gooding - Keypath Nursing & Midwifery

03 Jun 2024 - 30 Oct 2025

Focus groups were conducted to explore the psychosocial challenges experienced by ICU nurses, as well as their perspectives on the types of content that would be most valuable in an online educational intervention aimed at strengthening resilience and wellbeing in ICU nurses. This project was funded by a JCU CHS Seed Grant.

Development of a Virtual Wellness Hub: A student well-being initiative for online learners.

Tracey Gooding - Keypath Nursing & Midwifery

06 Jan 2025 - 31 Oct 2025

The aim of this project is to design a Virtual Wellness Hub intervention specifically for online Master of Nursing students at James Cook University (JCU). This initiative will be developed with input from literature on student wellbeing needs, mental health professionals, faculty and feedback from students, focusing on student-centred, user-friendly, accessible resources designed to enhance student well-being for online learners.