Nursing, Midwifery & Indigenous Health

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Despite nearly twenty years teaching nursing, I am a relative newcomer to tertiary teaching. I was in the privileged position of undertaking my three research projects while working in the clinical sector. This gives me a lived appreciation of the struggles involved in being a wife, parent, clinician and researcher. My tertiary studies commenced at CSU, as a distant student, when I was in my thirties with three small children.

The range of my clinical experience is mental health, aged care, palliative care, acute care and community nursing in diverse roles but predominantly in education. This experience has been across metropolitan and rural health which has given me an insight into the similarities and divergence in issues for nurses in both settings.

My passion for research and teaching stems from the appreciation that it is through these two areas I can make a difference. It is the transformative potential of teaching that motivates me to continue to develop my own skills so that I can better facilitate insight and learning for students.

Teaching Interests

• Aged Care
• Research
• Education
• Safety
• Mental Health
• Wound Care

Research Interests

• Promoting skills and the use of technology to detect functional decline in older people living in the community (In collaboration with CareWest)
• Examining the hospital/aged care interface (Inter-faculty collaboration)
• Use of ICT to improve cognition of people with a diagnosis of dementia (International collaboration –Australia, UK, and USA)
• Health literacy of rural communities related to aged care services (Collaboration with MLHD)
• Impact of climate change on older people (Inter- faculty collaboration)
• How aged care workers learn about safety
• The experience of rural ageing
• The place of IT in learning about dementia
• Teaching and researching in aged care

Research Projects

2013 Building communities of practice around the prevention of functional decline in the community: A regional approach.

The aim of the Aged Care Workforce Reform Project is to implement and evaluate a number of evidence-based workforce redesign and reform projects, to increase sustainable and adaptable supply, and determine supports for national adoption. CareWest is managing one of 26 projects across Australia, funded by Health Workforce Australia. Our project seeks to trial a number of interventions (training, resource provision and structural change) and then study the outcome of these interventions. Information gathered through this process will inform national evaluations.

This project is supported by a grant from CareWest. The research team is Professor Mark Morrison (Lead CI), Dr Oliver Burmeister, Dr Maree Bernoth, Dr Md Zahidul Islam, Dr Debra Da Silva, and Dr Bhanugopan Ramudu.

2012 Healthy Ageing through ICT.

This project aims to enhance independence and opportunities for social connection and information retrieval of older people through ICT. It involves employing a retired computer trainer (peer trainer) to train interested members of a regional senior citizens club, in the use of iPad3 tablet computers. Following the training, one iPad will permanently remain at the club, and the others will be lent to club members, who will have the use of the iPads for four months, with further training provided after two weeks and again after two months. The peer trainer will be available to other club members using the iPad at the facility for ad-hoc training once each fortnight, during the period of the research. The participants who borrow the iPads will be interviewed twice during the loan period, at two and four months. There will also be an initial survey including all club members, not only those who borrow the iPads. Participants will keep diaries concerning their iPad use during the four month loan period. Participants who use the iPad at the club will also be interviewed.

This project is supported by a grant from the CSU Faculty of Business. The research team is  Dr Oliver Burmeister (Lead CI), Professor Kenneth Russell, Associate Professor Elaine Dietsch, Dr Maree Bernoth

2011 -2012 Experiences of older people and their families/carers when aged care services need to be accessed outside of their inland communities.

This phenomenological research project focused on giving a voice to older people living in rural areas of Australia. The experiences of older people, their families, carers and community leaders, captured through in-depth interviews, demonstrated the trauma when people were forced away from their communities because they were old and needed care.
The outcomes of the research are articulated in the publication, Forced into exile: the traumatising impact of rural aged care inaccessibility, published in the journal Rural and Remote Health.

This project was supported by a grant from CSU Faculty of Science. The research team was Dr Maree Bernoth (Lead CI), Associate Professor Elaine Dietsch and Carmel Davies.

2010 The experiences of residential aged care. Perspectives of carers and families.

This phenomenological research project explored what it is like to have a relative or friend in residential aged care. The outcomes demonstrated the need for improved care in a number of clinical areas and resulted in two papers and a conference presentation. The research outcomes formed the basis of my submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry –Caring for Older Australians.

Past Projects included:

2009 ‘…and the word was made flesh.’

The impact of discourses of embodiment in promoting safe manual handling practice in aged care. This thesis was submitted for the award of a PhD from Monash University, Churchill. As themes emerged, the methodology moved from phenomenology to post structuralist and then post modern emergence. The research examined the outcomes of an education program designed to promote body awareness and demonstrated how unsafe the exposed body and the aged care environment is and the impact of neo-liberalist policies on those who work in aged care and those dependent on care.

2001 Manual handling in aged care. The meaning and significance for practitioners.

This thesis was submitted for the award of Master of Education with Honours (Adult Education & Training) from The University of New England, Armidale. The outcomes demonstrated that it was impossible to work safely when the aged care worker is not aware of the body that they inhabit and in an environment which potentiates disembodiment.

Professional Activities

Memberships

• Hunter Trainers and Assessors Network
• Board Cowra Early Childhood Services
• Geriaction (Committee Member 2005-2007)
• Wound Care Association NSW (Committee Member 2000-2002)
• Hunter Wound Interest Group (Life Membership awarded 2007)
• Aged Care Crisis Team

Professional Activities

• Part of the team which established the Hunter Wound Interest Group
• Gained RTO status for Allandale Nursing Home Cessnock and Catholic Care of the Aged, Newcastle
• In 2003 participated in the quality improvement of courses provided by the faculty of Health, Education and Professional Studies Unit, University of New England
• Organising committees for Geriaction National Conference and Hunter Wound Interest Group conferences
• 1998- 2002 worked on the Links with Workplace Project, working with University of New England to link trainers in the workplace with the tertiary education sector to provide networking and support
• Member of working party within Hunter Area Health to formulate an elder abuse policy
• Member of a working party within Hunter Area Health to formulate strategies to reduce occurrences of pressure ulcers

Career Highlights

• Awarded the Clinical Prize in my graduating year
• Having one of my students in the pilot group for the Certificate III in Aged Care named Trainee of the Year
• Observing former students continuing to learn and develop their skills and move into positions of influence in nursing
• Having the courage to commence and continue my tertiary studies
• Attracting a WorkCover Grant for my initial research project

Publications

• View publications in CRO

Books - Contributed to

• Hemi Australia. 2007. Wound Glossary. Baulkham Hills.

Books - Forthcoming

• Sheedy, M. 2010. Small Business Stressbusters. Australia. Wiley & Sons

Theses

• Bernoth, M. 2009. "...and the word was made flesh." The impact of discourses of embodiment in promoting safe manual handling practice in aged care. PhD thesis submitted January 2009. Monash University. Melbourne.
• Bernoth, M. 2001. Manual handling in aged care. The Meaning and Significance for Practitioners. Masters thesis. Armidale. University of New England.
• Bernoth, M. 1996. Manual handling practice - Achieving attitudinal change through education, submission for Graduate Diploma in Adult Education and Training. Armidale. University of New England.

Presentations

• 2010. Wound Bed Preparation. Guest speaker, Smith & Nephew Education Series

Submissions to Government

• 2010. Submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into the Care of Older Adults
• 2009. Reports to the Ministers and Shadow Ministers for Health and Ageing in relation to the conditions of residential aged care in Australia.

Grants

• Stories from older people and their relatives/carers when accessing aged care services outside their rural and remote community - Dr Maree Bernoth, Dr Elaine Dietsch & Carmel Davies.