Our Team

Director, Murtupuni Centre for Rural and Remote Health

BA MPH Grad Cert PHC Research PhD (candidate)

Catrina’s research interests reflect her own personal commitment to improving the lives of Indigenous people using methodologies informed by Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies and axiologies (our ways of knowing, being and doing). Catrina’s doctoral studies are investigating the birthing experiences of Aboriginal woman from Mornington Island and their aspirations for having their babies born on Country.

Collaborations

• Anton Brienl Research Centre for Health Systems Strengthening
• Named Chief Investigator (co-lead) NHMRC Project: Women's action for Mums and Bubs (WOMB): A pragmatic trial of participatory women's groups to improve Indigenous maternal and child health
• Named Investigator NHMRC Partnership Project: Quality improvement in Indigenous primary health care: Leveraging Effective Ambulatory Practices (LEAP).

Recent Top 5 papers

• Kristy Hill & Catrina Felton-Busch. (September 2015). Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Worker Skills Recognition & Up-Skilling Project: Final Report. Indigenous Health Unit, James Cook University.
  This paper reports on a Health Workforce Australia project to provide current Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Health Workers with the necessary qualification for AHPRA registration.
• Mills J, Felton-Busch C, Park T, Maza K, Mills F, Ghee M, et al. Supporting Australian Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal nursing students using mentoring circles: an action research study. Higher Education Research & Development. 2014;33(6):1136-49.
  This paper reports on the methodology of an action research project into the value of mentoring circle for a cohort of Indigenous nursing students who undertake their studies at the JCU study centre on Thursday Island.
• Mills J, Felton-Busch C, Park T, Maza K, Mills F, Ghee M, et al. Working on each others' ideas: mentoring circles as a method of supporting remote Australian Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal nursing students. 10th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. 2014, University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign.
  Conference paper presented on the grounded theory methodology of an action research project. The aim of the study was to foster the emotional and social growth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing students to improve the students' experience and retention rates.
• Felton‐Busch C, Maza K, Ghee M, Mills F, Mills J, Hitchins M, et al. Using mentoring circles to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing students: Guidelines for sharing and learning. Contemporary Nurse. 2013;46(1):135-138.
  This paper reports on an action research project where researchers implemented a mentoring circle in a remote James Cook University satellite campus in the Torres Strait. The researchers offer guidelines to establish a mentoring circle in a tertiary setting.
• Wronski I, Stronach P, Felton-Busch C. Indigenous health: Can occupational therapy respond to the challenge to ‘Close the Gap’? Australian Occupational Therapy Journal. 2011;58(1):1-2.
  An invited opinion piece regarding the importance of providing specific pathways for Indigenous people into Occupational Therapy for the development of culturally appropriate allied health workforce to "Close the Gap".

Research Links

ORCID 0000-0001-8943-5307
Google Scholar
Researchgate

Research Fellow

Role at the CRRH

Alice Cairns is currently working in Weipa, Cape York, as the Western Cape Site Coordinator and Lecture, for the Centre for Rural and Remote Health, James Cook University. In October 2018, she will commence an Early Career Research Fellowship.

Background

Alice is an occupational therapist who specialised in mental health rehabilitation for over 12 years in clinical and management roles. She has worked across private and government community mental health services within Queensland and in forensic mental health services in the UK. She has a particular clinical interest in the impact of cognitive capacity on occupational performance. She received her PhD titled 'Exploring help-seeking, vocational role function and goal setting of young people accessing mental health services' from the Queensland University of Technology in 2017.

Professional roles/memberships

OT Australia member
SARRAH member

Professional achievements

In Alice's current role she has:

• Developed a CRRH presence in Weipa through developing relationships with local Queensland Health, Apunipima, Cape York Pharmacy and Education Queensland clinical and operational staff.
• Supported research capacity building within local Queensland Health clinical staff through supporting the development of research projects.
• Developed a model for Occupational Therapy student placements within

Research Interests

Alice's research has focused on adult and adolescent mental health, particularly the impact on cognitive function on functioning. In her current role Alice's research interests have broadened to focus on health service research. In 2019 she will be supported by a HOT North Early Career Fellowship to evaluate a student-led older person's wellness service in remote Cape York communities.

https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/alice.cairns/ 

Pharmacy Academic

B.Pharm AACP Grad Cert Diabetes Ed.

Selina Taylor commenced her academic career at the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health (CRRH) – James Cook University in 2011. Selina teaches into both the Bachelor of Nursing Program and Bachelor of Pharmacy Program at James Cook University. Her research interests relate to pharmacy education, diabetes management in indigenous populations and defining the future scope of practice of pharmacists.

Selina’s role at CRRH focuses on improving the rural pharmacy workforce through facilitation of student placements, education for rural and remote pharmacists and multidisciplinary education and teaching sessions for students and health professionals. Her role requires effectively managing project objectives, timelines and budgets.

AFFILIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

• Society of Hospital Pharmacists – SHPA – Member since 2012
• Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy – AACP – Member since 2011
• Australian Diabetes Educator Association – ADEA – Member since 2016
• Services for Australia Rural and Remote Allied Health – SARRAH – Member since 2015 – Queensland Network Coordinator – 2015 –Current
• National Rural Health Alliance – NRHA – Member since 2011
• Rural Pharmacist Support Network – Member since 2011- Deputy Chair – 2014-Current
• Pharmaceutical Society of Australia – PSA – Member since 2017

Recent Top 5 papers

• Taylor, Selina. Rural pharmacy: Self-administered blood glucose monitoring in indigenous populations [online]. Australian Pharmacist, Vol. 35, No. 2, Feb 2016: 25. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=287672887480946;res=IELAPA> ISSN: 0728-4632
• Kirschbaum, M., Khalil, H., Taylor, S., Page. A., Pharmacy students’ rural career intentions: Perspectives on rural background placements. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning Volume 8, Issue 5, September–October 2016, Pages 615–621 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2016.06.002
• Taylor, S., Yaqoot, F., Navaratnam, L., Roberts, H., Simulated Interprofessional learning activities for rural health care services: perceptions of health care students. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare 2017:10 235-241
• Taylor, Selina., Fatima Y., Solomon S., Factors affecting the self-monitoring of blood glucose levels in Aboriginal patients: findings from a remote community. Australian Indigenous HealthBulletin. Vol. 17, Issue 3, July-Sept 2017.
• Taylor S, Hays C, Glass B. Compounding medications in a rural setting: an interprofessional perspective. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare. In press 2018

Research Assistant

Stephanie assists in the research of health-related topics as identified by CRRH and the community.
Stephanie has a strong community development background from having worked across sectors such as mining, employment and health.

Stephanie research interest is around the impact of drugs in the community like ICE (methamphetamines).

Recent Top 5 papers

• Smith, T., Cross, M., Waller, S., Chambers, H., Farthing, A., Barraclough, F., Pitt S.W., Sutton, K., Muyambi, K., King, S., Anderson, J. (2018). Ruralization of students' horizons: insights into Australian health professional students' rural and remote placements. J Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 11, 85-97.

Interprofessional Learning Coordinator & Research Officer

RIPRN, GCertDisMgnt, MPH, MNursClinEd

Sally is completing her PHD through JCU completing a clinician research project that is a collaboration with the Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service in the Remote implementation of nasal high flow therapy for children, the project is titled “PARIS Remote”.  PARIS stands for Paediatric Acute Respiratory Intervention Studies, which is a group that has provided landmark research in nasal high flow therapy for children, we are applying this intellect to the remote setting using an implementation science framework.