Melanie Birks

James Cook University | JCU · College of Healthcare Sciences

The purpose of pre-service nursing education programs is to prepare competent graduates who are able to function as safe, professional registered nurses. An extensive element of these programs is the teaching of physical assessment skills, with most programs educating students to perform over 120 such skills. Previous research from North America su...

Background Professional nursing practice is informed by biological, social and behavioural sciences. In undergraduate pre-registration nursing programs, biological sciences typically include anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, physics and pharmacology. The current gap in the literature results in a lack of information about the content an...

Bullying and harassment in nursing are unacceptable behaviours in the workplace. There is a large body of evidence relating this problem, however little of it focuses on the experiences of nursing students. This prospective cross-sectional survey investigated Australian undergraduate nursing students’ (N = 888) experiences of bullying and/or harass...

Background: Bullying in nursing remains an unacceptable international phenomenon and one that is widely reported in the literature. Recently, reports of bullying and harassment of nursing students have been increasing. Aim: This paper aims to describe bullying and harassment experienced by Australian nursing students while on clinical placement, as...

Background Master of Nursing (MN) programs serve as an important structured pathway to prepare the nursing workforce to develop advanced capabilities. Little research has been done to examine the key characteristics of MN programs in Australia and their responsiveness to meeting the health needs of the community. Aim The aim of this desktop analys...

Demand for online education has increased in recent decades. Uptake of postgraduate nursing education in this mode is on the rise, yet many students do not achieve completion. Student engagement is vital to success in online postgraduate nursing programs. Technology enables a more efficient means of monitoring engagement, yet limited literature is...

Struggling to understand fundamental concepts in grounded theory? This online course has been developed by renowned grounded theorists Melanie Birks and Jane Mills to assist you to use grounded theory in your own research. Start when it suits you! Complete at your own pace! Digital credential on completion! https://www.infined.com.au/gttb

There is an urgent need to generate deeper understandings of how suicidality manifests and evolves during pregnancy and the following year. Several perinatal studies have examined the incidence of suicidal thoughts and behaviours and associated social and obstetric risk factors; however, there is very limited research offering insights into women's...

The use of humanoid robot technologies within global healthcare settings is rapidly evolving; however, the potential of robots in health promotion and health education is not established. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of a social humanoid robot on individuals' knowledge of influenza (flu) prevention and attitudes towards influenza...

Background and purpose: The flexible exercise participation program (FEPP) is a novel intervention developed to enable individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) participate and progress in an exercise or sport of their choice. The FEPP is underpinned by guidelines on aerobic exercise for individuals with MS and is supported by a physiotherapist usi...

Background Entry to seek health care services in Australia is based on a person's acuity rating as stipulated in legislation, standards and policy. In the context of diabetes Specialist Outpatient Departments, access involves a referral that is triaged by a clinician into a categorised waitlist. However, within categories, access to health care is...

Academic misconduct is a problem of growing concern across the tertiary education sector. While plagiarism has been the most common form of academic misconduct, the advent of software programs to detect plagiarism has seen the problem of misconduct simply mutate. As universities attempt to function in an increasingly complex environment, the factor...

Background: The ‘digital age’ has led to a renaissance in historical methods. The way in which nurse historians can search, collate and analyse sources has changed exponentially over the past two decades. The mass digitisation of books, newspapers and other documents has resulted in the removal of many longstanding barriers to performing historical...

Nurses and midwives of Australia now is the time for change! As powerfully placed, Indigenous and non-Indigenous nursing and midwifery professionals, together we can ensure an effective and robust Indigenous curriculum in our nursing and midwifery schools of education. Today, Australia finds itself in a shifting tide of social change, where the voi...

Aim This study sought to explore how bullying in the nursing profession in Australia has changed over four decades, and why it continues to persist. Background Bullying in nursing is recognized as a pervasive problem. While much attention has been given to demonstrating the existence and impact of bullying in the nursing profession, little is unde...

Background Advances in genetic and genomic science and technology are changing the way healthcare is delivered. There is a new responsibility for all nurses to be knowledgeable of genomics and incorporate genomics into nursing practice. Aim This study seeks to understand how genomics is understood and applied in oncology nursing practice in a regi...

Background Metabolic/bariatric surgery is the surgical treatment of obesity and obesity-related comorbidities. As one of the most obese nations in the world, the demand for continuing professional development (CPD) in this specialty is growing, however, it is unknown what form and content of education this group of specialist nurses need. Aim This...

In the years since its introduction, grounded theory has transformed social science research and, in the process, has undergone its own evolution. The manifestations of this evolution have been the subject of much contention and debate. This debate could result in some confusion for the novice researcher in respect of what constitutes grounded theo...

Background Healthcare services require graduate nurses to be practice ready, however growing evidence implies that this is not the case. There is a lack of clarity in the literature around the concept of practice readiness and how this is determined. Without a clear definition to guide assessment processes, decisions about graduate nurse practice r...

Background: Double degrees in nursing and midwifery have evolved in Australia as a proposed solution to possible impending shortages of qualified midwives in the healthcare workforce. The double degree is seen as a more acceptable option in non-metropolitan areas in particular. Concern has been expressed however, about dilution of midwifery philoso...

Background The healthcare environment is highly pressured, dynamic and demanding of staff. Existing research indicates that when graduate nurses begin work, they are not practice ready and struggle to adapt and manage their responsibilities as registered nurses. Aim As part of a larger study, this paper examines the impact of the healthcare enviro...

Since being developed as a research methodology in the 1960s, grounded theory (GT) has grown in popularity. In spite of its prevalence, considerable confusion surrounds GT, particularly in respect of the essential methods that characterize this approach to research. Misinformation is evident in the literature around issues such as the various appro...

A number of resources exist to assist registered nurses in Australia to determine their scope of practice; however, the ability of a professional nurse to expand his or her practice is highly context dependent. This article reports on barriers and enablers to expanding scope of practice, as identified by registered nurses across Australia. A cross-...

Since the 1980s, many fields of qualitative research have adopted LINCOLN and GUBA's (1985) four criteria for determining rigour (credibility, confirmability, dependability and transferability) to evaluate the quality of research outputs. Historical research is one field of qualitative inquiry where this is not the case. While most historical resea...

Care left undone, interchangeably referred to as missed care, unfinished nursing care and task incompletion, is pervasive in contemporary healthcare systems. Care left undone can result in adverse outcomes for the patient, nurse and organization. The rhetoric that surrounds care left undone infers it is a contemporary nursing phenomenon; however, a...

The nursing profession is presented with numerous definitions of workplace bullying. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the concept of bullying in the nursing profession in Australia through a scoping review of definitions presented in literature published up until 2018. The research questions used to guide the search were as follows: How...

Aim: To critically appraise and synthesise the literature regarding the role and scope of midwifery practice, specifically to inform the evidence based development of standards for practice for all midwives in Australia. Design: A structured scoping review of the literature DATA SOURCES: CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE Complete and Cochrane Libraries d...

Objective The aim of this study was to explore the experience of participation in sport and exercise for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) with minimal disability. The objectives were to gain an understanding of key factors that influence participation in sport and exercise and to determine support required by individuals with MS to particip...

Background Bullying in nursing is not a new phenomenon and nursing students are not exempt from its effects, however there is limited literature that deals directly with bullying of nursing students within the clinical environment in New Zealand. Quality clinical placements are vital to facilitate the link between theory and practice whilst working...

Abstract Background: Grounded theory is a well-known methodology employed in many research studies. Qualitative and quantitative data generation techniques can be used in a grounded theory study. Grounded theory sets out to discover or construct theory from data, systematically obtained and analysed using comparative analysis. While grounded theory...

Background Migration trends to Australia have seen an increase in international nurses, with twenty-nine percent of current registered nurses having received their first nursing qualification outside of Australia. The process international and local nurses navigate to enable successful integration into the Australian healthcare system is unclear....

Purpose: Registered nurses and midwives require a degree of genomic literacy if they are to adequately communicate with other healthcare professionals and provide optimal care to patients, their families, and the community. Several studies have been conducted internationally to assess the genomic literacy of nurses; however, the genomic literacy o...

In respect of professional nursing, the term scope of practice is regularly used, yet is often poorly defined both in Australia and internationally. This study explores the determinants of scope of practice from a national sample of Australian registered nurses using an online survey (Scope-QAu). This paper reports on two parts of a large cross-sec...

Background: Bullying in nursing remains unacceptable with reports of bullying and harassment increasing. Aim: This article discusses the current state of knowledge about bullying in the nursing profession in Australia. Methods: The review was informed by the approach described by Whittemore and Knafl. A literature search was conducted using thefoll...

Background: Bullying in nursing is a global problem that has been explored and reported within the literature. There is however, limited literature that deals directly with bullying of nursing students in the clinical setting in New Zealand. Aim: This prospective cross-sectional survey investigated New Zealand undergraduate nursing students' experi...

Demand for undergraduate nursing and midwifery placements and provision of quality clinical experience is an ongoing issue within Australia (Anderson et al. 2016; HWA 2014). In tackling this issue, Townsville Hospital and Health Service (THHS), accepted the challenge co-designing an innovative model in partnership with James Cook University to deve...

Background: Universities' responsibility to ensure academic integrity is frustrated by software and communication tools that facilitate content reuse coupled with a growing international essay writing economy. A wide range of behaviours constitute academic dishonesty and while a complex phenomenon to examine, existing evidence suggests that there...

The aim of this integrative review was to update a mixed method systematic review by Skirton, O'Connor, and Humphreys (2012) that reported on nurses’ levels of competence in using genetics in clinical practice. Three electronic databases were searched using selected key words. Research studies published in English between January 2011 and September...

Background Pregnancy is a significant event in a woman’s life, a time of great expectation and attachment to the possibilities and dreams placed onto the new life growing inside her. Complications in pregnancy are physically and psychologically traumatic experiences that can generate high levels of anxiety. Vaginal bleeding, pain, or both in the fi...

Introduction: The NMBA Development of Midwife standards for practice project has reviewed the National competency standards for the midwife (Nursing and Midwifery Board Australia, 2006) to inform the drafting of Midwife standards for practice. Midwife standards for practice set out the expectations of the midwife’s practice and inform midwifery edu...

Role modelling by experienced nurses, including nurse academics, is a key factor in the process of preparing undergraduate nursing students for practice, and may contribute to longevity in the workforce. A grounded theory study was undertaken to investigate the phenomenon of nurse academics' role modelling for undergraduate students. The study soug...

Introduction: International nurses account for 20% of the Australian nurse workforce. This review aims to identify and appraise research findings on the experiences of internationally qualified registered nurses working in the Australian healthcare system. Methodology: The review was structured using Whittemore and Knafl modified framework for i...

In this ‘Issues for Debate’ paper, the issue is debate. Today's nurses must be able to advocate, lead, and grow ‘big ideas’, as well as knowing their way around a patient's body and mind. This paper reports, partly, on a research study into the use of debate to develop clinical reasoning and thinking skills in nursing students. The study was conduc...

Background: Nursing practice is underpinned by science knowledge. While the literature is consistent in identifying limitations in teaching science content to nurses, there is a lack of consensus regarding what should be taught and to what level of detail. No studies to date have systematically surveyed registered nurses (RNs) for their perspective...

Mapping the curriculum of a professional degree to the associated competency standard ensures graduates have the competence to perform as professionals. Existing approaches to competence mapping vary greatly in depth, complexity, and effectiveness, and a standardised approach remains elusive. This paper describes a new mapping software tool that st...

Background Learning in the clinical setting is an essential component of nursing education. Two common models of clinical learning place students in facilities using either block or distributed approaches. Aim The aim of this study was to examine nursing students’ perceptions of the impact of block versus distributed model of clinical placement on...

Doctoral snobbery exists. It's a thing (Parnell, 2016). It's an extension of 'academic snobbery' (Martin & Sorensen, 2014) more generally, and probably originates from 'title snobbery' (Valverde, Mueller, Paciotti, & Conway, 2016). Successfully completing a doctoral qualification is no small achievement and so some degree of elitism is probably rea...

Aims and objectives To identify how science should be taught to nursing students, and by whom. Background An understanding of foundational science and its role in supporting safe and effective nursing practice is an important part of student learning. The well documented challenges in teaching this content are compounded by a lack of evidence rega...

Over the last forty years, case study research has undergone substantial methodological development. This evolution has resulted in a pragmatic, flexible research approach, capable of providing comprehensive in-depth understanding of a diverse range of issues across a number of disciplines. Change and progress have stemmed from parallel influences...

Bullying and harassment in nursing are unacceptable behaviours in the workplace. There is a large body of evidence relating this problem, however little of it focuses on the experiences of nursing students. This prospective cross-sectional survey investigated Australian undergraduate nursing students' (N = 888) experiences of bullying and/or harass...

Midwifery bodies have expressed concern that the competing ideologies of nursing science, which is closer to a medical model of care, and of midwifery can be confusing for students and counterproductive to their education as effective midwives. Proponents of dual nursing and midwifery degrees, however, argue that there is a need in rural and region...

Purpose of Study: This presentation describes the findings of a scoping review of manuscripts regarding the foundations of nursing practice that were produced between the 1500s to 1850s in Europe, North America and Australia. This review identifies and describes the key content themes contained in these manuscripts. Rationale and Significance: Cont...

Background: Modern nursing has long been associated with the publication of Nightingale's Notes on Nursing in 1859. However, the discovery of a 1617 Spanish treatise Instruccions de Enfermeros (Instructions for Nurses), highlights manuscripts werewritten regarding the profession by nurses for nurses at least two centuries prior to Nightingale. Inst...

Background The nursing profession comprises Australia¹s largest regulated health workforce yet its practice boundaries are poorly understood. The ambiguity surrounding the practice scope of nurses limits the profession¹s ability to fully respond to Australia¹s current and emerging health system challenges. Aim The aim of this review is to explore t...

Background: Aged care services and nursing roles are evolving in response to policy reform and increasing consumer expectations, however the nursing workforce is declining in numbers. Aims: To examine registered nurses’ perceptions and experiences of working in aged care. Methods: Thematic analysis of individual interviews. Fourteen nurses were pur...

Background: Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is the initial help offered to a person developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The MHFA course is a 12 h evidence-based course which teaches members of the general public to provide first aid assistance until the crisis resolves or the individual receives professional he...

The findings of this grounded theory PhD study into role modeling by nurse academics provide new insight into the concept of clinical currency. Reconciling professional identity, the core category of this grounded theory, encompasses three categories: creating a context for learning, creating a context for authentic rehearsal and mirroring identity...

The findings of this grounded theory PhD study into role modeling by nurse academics provide new insight into the concept of clinical currency. Reconciling professional identity, the core category of this grounded theory, encompasses three categories: creating a context for learning, creating a context for authentic rehearsal and mirroring identity...

Complications in early pregnancy can lead to pregnancy loss (miscarriage) and ultimately the presentation of a woman to their local emergency department (ED). Miscarriage is a common occurrence, with one in six pregnancies resulting in pregnancy loss.(1) Unfortunately medical and nursing care does not change the likelihood of a threatened miscarria...

Robots, including robotic seals, have been used as an alternative to therapies such as animal assisted therapy in the promotion of health and social wellbeing of older people in aged care facilities. There is limited research available that evaluates the effectiveness of robot therapies in these settings. The aim of this study was to identify, expl...

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Development of Midwife standards for practice project will review the National competency standards for the midwife (Nursing and Midwifery Board Australia, 2006) to inform the development of Midwife standards for practice (Standards). This first report brings together the findings from the phase o...

Variations in grounded theory (GT) interpretation are the subject of ongoing debate. Divergences of opinion, genres, approaches, methodologies, and methods exist, resulting in disagreement on what GT methodology is and how it comes to be. From the postpositivism of Glaser and Strauss, to the symbolic interactionist roots of Strauss and Corbin, thro...

The quality of undergraduate nursing education is essential to producing graduates that are safe and effective practitioners, relevant to the broader contexts of care. National accreditation standards are focused on ensuring the quality of nursing programs in terms of public interest and safety. To ensure that nursing programs achieve the outcomes...

Articulated education pathways between the vocational education training sector and universities provide opportunities for students wishing to progress to higher qualifications. Enrolled nurses seeking to advance their career in nursing can choose to enter baccalaureate degree programs through such alternative entry routes. Awarding of credit for p...

This paper reports on the results of a study into the use of microblogging technology (TodaysMeet) in large, multi-site lectures in a nursing program. The aim of this study was to investigate students' use of the technology and their perceptions of its value in stimulating engagement in a complex learning environment. The study demonstrated that st...

Novice researchers undertaking a PhD are exposed to different research methodologies, methods, and related philosophies. The emphasis is on developing knowledge and skills as they progress through the research process. Doctoral studies are usually considered research training, or an ‘apprenticeship’ in research. With the emphasis on investigative p...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine current approaches to interpretation of student evaluation data and present an innovative approach to developing benchmark targets for the effective and efficient use of these data. Design/methodology/approach – This article discusses traditional approaches to gathering and using student feedback a...

The major deliverable of the project has been the development of the Guide. At the COAL FACE: A Guide to active learning in a multi-campus, multi-modal and distributed learning environments. The Guide provides practical strategies to guide the design of active learning experiences in complex, multi-campus and distributed university learning environ...

Nurses operate in dynamic health-care environments. They are often in positions where they are required to undertake rapid diagnosis, provide emergency health-care responses and make instant risk assessments. Often, these activities occur in real-time, high-risk health-care environments and emergency situations in conditions that can be characteris...

Bullying is a major problem in nursing. Baccalaurea te nursing students can be exposed to this type of uncivil behaviour on clinical placement in healthcare facilities. Witnessing or experiencing bullying can cause psychological distress in students, negatively affecting their learning and possibly leading them to leave the nursing profession early...

Online and blended learning modalities have made education accessible to those whose lifestyle, work obligations or geographical location would otherwise deny them such opportunities. The enthusiasm with which such approaches to learning have been embraced has often overlooked those factors within physical and virtual learning spaces that impact on...

The relevance of pre-registration programs of nursing education to current and emerging trends in healthcare and society could have a significant future impact on the nursing profession. In this article, we use a PESTEL (politics, economics, society, technology, environment, and law) framework to identify significant current and future priorities i...

Several barriers to student participation traditionally plague large lectures. The passive nature of student learning and the fear of asking questions in an open forum can inhibit the effectiveness of large group teaching. Enhancing student engagement is key to overcoming the limitations of the lecture experience and there is an increasing body of...

The use of documents as a source of extant data is relatively common in grounded theory (GT) research. While GT promotes the dictum "all is data," finding consistent commentary on how to use documents as data is difficult, especially among seminal works. The need to be aware of the context of extant data is a vital step prior to commencing analysis...

[Extract] Working effectively in any community requires understanding of the community. Such an understanding can be obtained through knowing the population demographics, resources and assets of that community. Together, these features make up a community profile that forms the basis for planning to address the burden of disease and inequity in hea...

[Extract] Bullying in the workplace has become a major problem. The subsequent international trend to impose legislation around workplace bullying has led to a significant increase in bullying claims. The intention of such legislation is positive, yet some of these claims can be destructive, particularly when bullying allegations arise from situati...