Anna Chur-Hansen

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• PhD
• Professor at The University of Adelaide

This study aimed to explore how women leveraged online peer support to discuss their experiences and seek information related to bariatric surgery. Specifically, it sought to determine whether women are adequately prepared for the unique challenges associated with bariatric surgery and identify potential areas for improving preoperative education a...

This paper addresses the aesthetics of bodily preparation of the deceased, pre‐funeral, in Australia. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Adelaide in 2020–2023, we reflect on participants' accounts and behaviours, noting that dead bodies, particularly those under the care of, and prepared by, members of the funeral industry, were conceptua...

Clinical placements allow students the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge and become workforce ready. Demand for clinical placements from education providers already exceeds supply. As healthcare workforce shortages continue, the need for increasing numbers of graduates will generate additional strain, and policymakers targeting health work...

Background When medical students enter their first psychiatry rotation, they often feel under-prepared for the complex milieu of psychopathology, emotional distress, and complex psychosocial issues. Simulation is valued for its ability to orient learners to new environments. In this project, a hybrid simulation workshop was designed and delivered f...

Domestic dogs can have devastating impacts on threatened wildlife, but limiting their damage is challenging because it relies on changing the behaviour of people who bring dogs into natural areas and allow them to romp unrestrained. Our study addressed the need to understand people and their behaviour when walking a dog on versus off‐leash in natur...

End-of-life care options in Australia, recently including Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD), are available to people in prison. Little is known about how the public perceives this right. We aimed to identify the attitudes of the public by conducting a qualitative content analysis of comments across four Australian online news media outlets discussing...

The impact of companion animals on humans has been extensively investigated. Previous and current literature has overwhelmingly focused on traditional companion animals, such as cats and dogs. Despite many individuals living with non-traditional companion animals, the research surrounding the impact they have on our lives remains understudied in co...

Hair and beauty work involves more than a service for aesthetic maintenance. Salon workers represent a source of informal care and social support for clients which requires effective inter- and intra-personal skills. The frequent interaction with multiple clients quintessential to salon work can be understood as emotional labour. Both emotional lab...

This paper explores how health professional education and scholarship is likely to evolve over the next 50 years. Recognising the ambitious nature of this goal, we have adopted an approach of “looking back to predict the future”, drawing on past trends and lessons learnt to offer some predictions and recommendations. In doing so, we are mindful tha...

Objectives The primary aim of this research was to use a taxonomy of behavior change techniques (BCTTv1) to identify, map, and describe the active components of intervention and comparator groups in studies evaluating the psychological well-being (PWB) of motor neuron disease (MND) carers. Secondary aims were to (a) identify absent active ingredien...

The decision to receive a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) represents a challenging experience for patients. However, the majority of previous research has only considered retrospective accounts of patient experiences. This study aimed to use social media data to characterize the information sought by people anticipating or considering...

Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for severe obesity, affording significant improvements in weight loss and health‐related quality of life. However, bariatric surgeons' views on whether certain pre‐operative factors predict improvements in post‐operative health‐related quality of life, and if so, which ones, are largely unknown. This cros...

Background There is a need to improve psychological care for people with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), noting the high psychosocial burden of disease. Aims This study qualitatively explored the views of people living with IBD to help inform future co-design of services that better meet the psychological needs of consumers. Methods Adults wit...

Background There is a severe shortage of corneas for donation, globally, for transplantation and research purposes. One group of individuals who could potentially be donors are those who die within the inpatient palliative care unit. The aim of the study was to understand clinician and patient perceptions of corneal donations and discussion of dona...

Purpose There is a gap in available mental well‐being services in Australia for women diagnosed with breast cancer. This pilot mixed‐methods uncontrolled study aimed to assess the feasibility of an online mental health and well‐being intervention, the Be Well Plan ( BWP ), which enables participants to create a personalized, flexible well‐being str...

Objective It is widely understood that a key means of improving health systems and patient outcomes is through research – accessing, understanding, generating and applying research evidence-based practice. To promote more targeted and strategic research in Allied Health practice, this study sought to establish the principles, areas and priorities f...

Introduction Simulated patients (SPs) are trained to simulate real patient scenarios for health professionals' education and training. The value of including SPs in simulated scenarios, particularly in relation to difficult and complex conversations, has been studied in various contexts, with a focus on learner experiences and outcomes. What has no...

Access to bariatric surgery is limited, and the factors related to undergoing or not undergoing the procedure are poorly understood. To this end, a systematic review of PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL was conducted to deduce the factors associated with progression or non‐progression to bariatric surgery. Quantitative and qualitative English‐la...

BACKGROUND: Using simulation methods that replicate specific job demands can accelerate return-to-work following an illness or injury. However, the components of simulation vary markedly. OBJECTIVE: The current study explores the perceptions and experiences of service users to better understand what aspects are required to facilitate a well-designe...

Background There is a need to improve psychological care for people with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), noting the high psychosocial burden of disease. Aims This study qualitatively explored the views of people living with IBD to help co-design future services that better meet the psychological needs of consumers. Methods Adults with IBD were...

Aim To synthesise the psychological, social, and quality of life outcomes of people with a cardiac implantable electronic device. Methods and Results An umbrella review of systematic reviews that reported the psychological, social, or quality of life outcomes of adults with a cardiac implantable electronic device was conducted. This umbrella revie...

Background A key skill of nephrology nursing is cannulation of patients receiving haemodialysis. Traumatic and unsuccessful cannulation experiences, particularly in the initial weeks of haemodialysis, may contribute to the onset of needle distress for patients. Objectives To identify the key knowledge, skills and attitudes of nephrology nurses wor...

There is an acknowledged professional practice gap regarding sexuality and sexual health related needs within mental health settings in Australia and internationally. Yet little is known about how clinicians can be best supported or enabled to improve sexuality‐related practice, from their own perspective. This is important, given the sensitive and...

Introduction Needle-related distress is common among people receiving hemodialysis and affects quality of life and treatment decisions, yet little evidence exists to guide management. This study explored patients’ experiences of needle-related distress to inform the development of prevention, identification, and management strategies. Methods Semi...

Background Blindness from corneal opacity accounts for 2.4% of cases of blindness worldwide. There is a severe shortage of corneas for donation, globally, for transplantation and research purposes. One group of individuals who could potentially be donors are those who die within the inpatient palliative care unit. The aim of the study was to unders...

Objectives: Psychological distress is common among palliative care patients. Despite this, little is known about the availability of psychological services to support palliative care patients within Australia. This study aimed to determine the level of psychological support services available within Australian Palliative Care Services. The study w...

Background: Gut-directed hypnotherapy appears to be a promising adjunctive treatment for people with Crohn's disease. The primary objective of this pilot trial was to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of virtually delivered hypnotherapy to determine the parameters for a future definitive trial. Methods: This prospective, single-site, random...

We conducted the Multidisciplinary Assessment at Dialysis Entry (MADE) study to evaluate the temporal evolution of symptom burden in the 6 months after dialysis commencement, exploring physical and psychosocial domains using validated PROMs. We also investigated symptom prevalence and severity, relationships between physical and psychological sympt...

This article ethnographically considers the experiences of Australian young people who were born deaf and who hear and listen through cochlear implants to explore the intersection between the sensory body, lived experience and technology. The article draws on phenomenology to examine how experiences of deafness are productive in analysing articulat...

Objective Early, targeted treatment is critical to recovery and overall health following a work-related illness or injury. Limited research has explored the important dimensions of work-specific injury rehabilitation from both client and staff perspectives.MethodsA total of 17 participants (13 clients with work-related injuries, 3 physiotherapists,...

Objective: Stoma surgery is a profoundly life changing event that can result in a range of negative psychological and mental health outcomes, often requiring significant postoperative adaption. While postoperative avenues of support to address these outcomes exist, there remains a lack of preoperative psychological preparation for surgical candida...

Background Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are used to treat a range of cardiovascular diseases and can lead to substantial clinical improvements. However, studies evaluating patients’ experiences of living with these devices are sparse and have focused mainly on implantable cardioverter defibrillators. In addition, there has been li...

BACKGROUND Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are used to treat a range of cardiovascular diseases and can lead to substantial clinical improvements. However, studies evaluating patients’ experiences of living with these devices are sparse and have focused mainly on implantable cardioverter defibrillators. In addition, there has been li...

Simple Summary Bonds with companion animals are believed to benefit human physical, psychological, and social health. Most research into the human–animal bond has focused on dogs, cats, and horses. However, many people have close relationships with other species such as fish, birds, and reptiles, yet there is limited research into human health bene...

Patchwork ethnography is a viable methodological and theoretical approach. Fieldwork can be accessible, achievable and accommodating of both personal and professional circumstances and responsibilities of the researcher, and external factors such as living within a COVID-19 world. In this article, we explain patchwork ethnography and showcase how t...

This study reports on the preferences of people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for their healthcare. Overall, 477 people with IBD responded to an open-ended survey question within a larger study. We qualitatively content-analysed these responses with open coding using NVivo. Respondents expressed a desire for (1) better communication, (2) mu...

Psychological literacy is a term to describe the core attributes that psychology graduates should possess upon completion of an undergraduate degree. This article explores the perceptions and practices of 18 higher education psychology educators (Australia, U.S., and U.K.), in relation to the concept of psychological literacy. Participants perceive...

Objectives This systematic review considers interventions designed to improve the psychological well-being (PWB) of carers of people with motor neuron disease (MND) using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods studies, and aimed to (1) summarize current research, (2) assess the quality of evidence, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of interve...

Background Needle-related distress is a common yet poorly recognised and managed problem among haemodialysis (HD) patients. The aim of this pilot study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of the INJECT Intervention—an innovative psychology-based intervention to empower patients to self-manage needle distress with the support of dialysis nu...

Research seeking to understand and improve sexuality-related practice in mental health settings has paid little attention to the institutional context in which clinicians’ practice is embedded. Through a social constructionist lens, we used thematic analysis to examine how 22 Australian mental health clinicians implicated the wider institutional co...

Background Caregivers of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) experience significant burden of care. Online forums provide an important platform for peer connection and expression of perspectives and concerns, but have not been used to capture consumer experiences in CKD research. Social support can improve caregivers’ quality of life, with e...

Background Companion and other animals have been known to promote wellbeing of people living with chronic disease by assisting in emotional regulation, social interaction and enhancing self-identity. However, little is known about the impact of animals on people with kidney disease, who often live with treatment burden, as well as compromised immun...

A body of research highlights parents' decision-making and the contested nature of deafness as an issue in clinical practices. Drawing on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork from 2017 to 2018 in an Australian city a ‘follow the baby’ approach was undertaken in a multi-sited setting. Forty-one parents and twenty-seven health and education profe...

Background Patients receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD) experience poor quality of life, depression, anxiety and lifestyle changes. Insights into how patients adjust to and cope with PD from a psychological perspective will aid care. Methods Participants were recruited purposively through the Central Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplantation Serv...

Interprofessional Education (IPE) is one approach to improving communication and collaborative practice between professions, which are essential for the optimal delivery of healthcare. Common barriers include negative attitudes, professional stereotypes, professional cultures and power differentials between professional groups. The aim of this qual...

Hairdressing is one of the few non‐health professional occupations where workers physically interact with clients, who are often comfortable in confiding private information to them. Despite this, relatively little is known about how hairdressers understand and experience this role as informal confidants. This study aimed to address this using an i...

In training to become a registered psychologist in Australia, as with many other countries, there is a requirement for students to attend placements, where they work with clients in an apprenticeship model under the guidance of qualified supervisors. In the context of COVID-19, tertiary sector psychology educators responsible for facilitating these...

Background Little is known about the prevalence and best management of needle fear in adults with chronic disease, who may experience frequent and long-term exposure to needles for lifesaving therapies such as renal dialysis and cancer treatment. Identifying interventions that assist in management of needle fear and associated distress is essential...

Context/Objective: Prolonged unemployment is common for people living with a spinal cord injury or disorder (SCI/D) and can impact negatively on quality of life. The present study examines stakeholder perspectives and experiences with the job search process in order to identify service gaps and return-to-work solutions. Design: In-depth semi-struct...

Objective: Psychological literacy has become influential as a concept to promote the value of a psychology degree to potential students and employers, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This influence is based upon an assumption that the concept of psychological literacy is valid. The objective of this paper is to...

Despite well-established screening for hearing problems, and objective, diagnostic techniques aimed at dispelling uncertainty, some parents spend months waiting for clear diagnosis of their child's hearing loss. In the clinical setting, providers use international best-practice policies in diagnosing and managing childhood deafness, yet limited att...

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. In Australia and internationally, entry into many professional psychology training programs is highly competitive, and as a duty of care to the public, training institutions must seek to offer places to those best-suited to training to become a psychologist. Typically, part of this s...

Diagnosing deafness is a culturally situated practice generating considerable research in health sciences but limited work in anthropology. Diagnosis fast-tracks parents into a medical and education pathway but can also create tension for parents and professionals. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, we argue that in this biomedical context, emotion...

Objectives To review the evidence base for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression in older people.MethodsA systematic review was conducted, based on Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. Any study design focusing on qualitative or quantitative data was considered for review. Inclusion criteria were mindfulnes...

Background The introduction of an adult onset Separation Anxiety Disorder in the DSM-V recognises that separation anxiety can occur at any stage across the lifespan. In this paper, we examine whether adult separation anxiety, which is known to occur when people are apart from other people close to them, can also develop when people are separated fr...

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) involving simulated patients (SPs) are being incorporated into professional psychology training to teach and assess competencies. However, students' perceptions of SP use in their education are mixed. Moreover, there are limited reports of student perceptions of OSCEs in psychology beyond quantitat...

Research indicates social support is imperative for postpartum well-being. The types of social support and access to preferred supports are less understood. This article considers first-time mothers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of social supports and perceived barriers to accessing support and provides recommendations for best practice. A sear...

Background & aims: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are associated with high psychosocial burden and economic cost. Integrating psychological care into routine management might lead to savings. We performed a 2-year investigation of the effects of integrated psychological care in reducing healthcare use and costs. Methods: We performed a prospe...

Health professional education (HPE) has grown as a field of research, with an increasing number of publications since the 1990s. Interprofessional education is a specific area of growth with ongoing debate in the literature, at least in part due to the challenges that exist in implementation, and further research is needed to inform ongoing practic...

This study aimed to identify studies measuring psychological literacy and analyse the methodological quality of these studies. We also aimed to determine conceptual consistency of psychological literacy in the included studies. PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, and Google Scholar were searched for relevant literature. The Joanna Briggs In...

Background: Research has identified that members of the veterinary profession are at high risk of occupational stress, burnout, poor psychological wellbeing and an elevated rate of suicide. Although scholarly interest in veterinarians has increased in recent years, relatively few studies have specifically examined the emotional work in veterinary...

Sexuality, relationships, and intimacy are integral parts of many peoples’ lives, not negated by mental distress and illness. Yet typically, these needs are not addressed adequately in mental health settings. In‐depth interviews were conducted with mental health clinicians with an aim of exploring their perceptions and understandings of sexuality a...

Background and aims: Inflammatory bowel disease is associated with psychosocial issues which reduce quality of life and impair medical management. However, these issues are rarely addressed in routine care. A model of integrated psychological screening and intervention was trialled to measure prevalence, patient participation, and potential benefi...

There is a well-established and ongoing need to improve the way that sexuality is addressed in mental health settings. This requires an understanding of how clinicians perceive sexuality in the context of mental distress and illness, which is the aim of this project. We conducted in-depth interviews with 22 psychologists, psychiatrists and mental h...

Purpose: Psychologists working with persons with vision impairment face unique challenges in providing psychological services, including mental health care and cognitive assessments. While existing competency guidelines for general disability and rehabilitation psychology are relevant to working with persons with vision impairment in many ways, spe...

[Now published in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/inm.12633] // Abstract: Sexuality, relationships, and intimacy are integral parts of many peoples’ lives, not negated by mental distress and illness. Yet typically, these needs are not addressed adequately in mental health settings...

Objective: To pilot a novel email-based information package (Work and SCI) for job-seekers with an acquired spinal cord injury (SCI) or spinal cord dysfunction (SCI/D). Study design: Prospective, non-randomized, repeated measures trial. Setting: Community dwelling cohort in Australia. Participants: Five people with SCI (mean age 46.4 years, SD = 10...

Objective To measure psychological and physical health of psychology students during their Honours year of study, in the context of this being perceived as a high stake, “make‐or‐break” degree program in Australia. Method Psychology honours students from 9 universities (N = 179) completed an online survey that included measures of depression, anxi...

Objective To establish the evidence base for animal‐assisted interventions, and specifically, hippotherapy and other interventions involving horses, in the context of improving biological, physical, psychological and social functioning, and outcomes in humans. Method A review of systematic reviews (an umbrella review) was carried out using a modif...

Background Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are associated with poor psychosocial wellbeing among people receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD). The mind‐gut axis represents one possible explanatory mechanism for this relationship. Despite existing evidence, the individual's experience of GI symptoms and their potential psychosocial consequences have not...

In this project we test the utility ofan adaptive e-learning study tool (LearnSmart) within the context of a large undergraduate psychology course. We measured student usage of the e-learning tool and the effect that this usage has on academic outcomes, while controlling for the effects of intellectual ability and personality traits such as conscie...

Background: Health professionals' bereavement practices, including funeral attendance, have attracted relatively little attention from researchers. There may be a number of motivations and perceived benefits for health professionals to attend patient funerals. There are no published data comparing different groups of health professionals' percepti...

Poster presentation for my Honours Thesis

Study design: A prospective, parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT). Objectives: To test the preliminary effects of an online resource targeted to job-seekers with spinal cord injury or disorder (SCI/D) and to determine the feasibility of proceeding to a full-scale RCT. Setting: A community cohort in Australia. Methods: Forty-eight adults (M= 4...

Sexuality is a central aspect of human experience but there is evidence that this is largely constrained, pathologised or ignored in mental health settings. We conducted in-depth interviews with 22 psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health nurses working across a variety of settings in four Australian cities. Sexuality was most often perceived...

Healthcare students from different professional backgrounds are often brought together under the banner of Interprofessional Education (IPE) in an effort to improve collaborative practice. Despite the demonstrated positive impact of IPE on students' knowledge, skills and attitudes, it is not clear what students think about learning with students fr...

Introduction: Clinical reasoning is an essential part of medical practice. Training medical students to reason competently is, therefore, an essential skill for clinical teachers. Ongoing debate over what clinical reasoning entails and difficulty explicitly teaching and assessing. it makes this a challenging task. This study explored clinical teach...

This paper is an ethnographic exploration of how attachment theory underpins therapeutic practices in an Australian institutional context where mothers of infants have been diagnosed and are undergoing treatment for mental illness. We argue that attachment theory in this particular context rests on a series of principles or assumptions: that attach...

Background Mental Health issues (MHIs) are common in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and are associated with reduced quality of life and poor disease course. Despite this, psychological support is not routinely provided in IBD outpatient settings. We report on a two-year trial of integrated psychological care in IBD management. Method...

Meat eating is a common behaviour, despite many people claiming to like, love, and care about animals. The apparent disconnection between not wanting animals to suffer, yet killing them for food, has been termed the 'meat paradox.' In this experimental study (N = 460), participants completed pre-affect, post-affect, meat attachment, and attitude to...

Introduction: There is limited research on the use of objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) in psychology despite their extensive use in medicine. This pilot study extended the evidence base by assessing the impact on student learning of OSCEs focused on motivational interviewing. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was used with quantit...