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Media Release

October 6, 2005

UniSA’s new Head of Nursing and Midwifery

Professor Helen McCutcheon is the new Professor and Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of South Australia.

UniSA’s first PhD graduate from nursing, Professor McCutcheon was previously Acting Head of the Department of Clinical Nursing at the University of Adelaide. She has a background in midwifery, neonatal paediatrics, and aged and palliative care nursing; and is an active researcher.

Professor McCutcheon is particularly interested in aged care and how elderly people are cared for in acute care and also the types of services and facilities for the elderly available to them in residential care.

“We have evidence to show that elderly people can become malnourished and dehydrated when in hospital because the environment, food, portion sizes, meal times and interruptions mean that their daily routine changes. In residential care one of the big issues is how to maintain adequate nutrition and hydration for people with dementia. These people often become agitated if required to sit down to eat a meal and ensuring an adequate intake of food and fluids is difficult,” Professor McCutcheon said.

Professor McCutcheon would like to see more students in clinical placements outside of acute care facilities, like cancer, asthma, arthritis and intellectual disability settings, as well as working with general practitioners, to gain experience in helping people to live well with a chronic illness, to manage their disease, enjoy a quality of life, and to do that in the community rather than in an acute care facility.

“As part of UniSA’s hub of health care professionals focusing on prevention and wellness, not just illness and care, I would also like to expose nursing students to primary schools and involve them in educating children about health and wellness, good diet, exercise and hygiene standards as part of their lifespan development.

“The core business of the School will be to educate nurses for the future health care system, not just for today. To do that we need a curriculum that’s innovative and flexible and produces nurses with skills that the health industry needs. They will be critical thinkers, able to work in a range of different environments including acute hospital as well as community health settings, and have a primary health care focus looking at prevention and wellness,” she said.

Professor McCutcheon has a Doctor of Philosophy (University of South Australia), a Master of Public Health (University of Adelaide) and a Bachelor of Arts (University of Adelaide). She is well known to many staff in UniSA’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, having been a postdoctoral research fellow in the School from 1997-1999.

Professor McCutcheon is an active researcher and a member of the Royal College of Nursing, Australia; Associate Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Executives and member of the Gerontological Society Australia.

She has been involved in research projects on the care of dying patients in acute care hospital settings with researchers including UniSA’s Professor Jan Pincombe and Alison Ballantyne, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the South Australian Health Commission.

Professor McCutcheon has presented papers at many national and international nursing conferences and her research has been published in national and international refereed nursing journals.

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