First PhD nurse to Head of School
by
Geraldine Hinter
UniSA’s first PhD graduate from nursing, Professor Helen McCutcheon,
has been appointed Professor and Head of the School of Nursing and
Midwifery.
Currently Acting Head of the Department of Clinical Nursing at the University of Adelaide, Prof McCutcheon has a background in midwifery, neonatal paediatrics and aged and palliative care nursing. She also researches with clinicians at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and in selected residential care facilities. Prof 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 available to them in residential care.
With more than 60 per cent of people treated at the RAH considered to be senior, Prof McCutcheon has been working on a project called Towards a senior friendly environment in an effort to make the RAH more “senior friendly”.
“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,” Prof McCutcheon said.
With an aging population, issues around chronic diseases and mental illness will need to be addressed by nursing, according to Prof McCutcheon, who sees gerontic nursing becoming increasingly specialised.
“My role in the school will be to produce 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 big primary health care focus looking at prevention and wellness,” she said.
Prof 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.”