2023 Excellence in Research
Dr Zoe Bradfield – Curtin University
Zoe is Western Australia’s only joint appointment Senior Midwifery Research Fellow between Women and Newborn Health Service and Curtin University leading the research intern component of the Graduate Midwifery Program at King Edward Memorial Hospital. Zoe empowers new midwives with the opportunity to engage in projects that assist in developing skills in quality and research development.
Zoe holds several significant positions outside of her substantive roles where she goes above and beyond representing midwives and advocating for ongoing improvement of maternity services through research, lobbying and committee representation. With 67 publications and more than 24 years of clinical experience in rural and metropolitan settings, Zoe’s passion, expertise, and professional leadership has translated into a practice that improves outcomes for women and babies.
Zoe’s work has transformed organisational culture and is being used to explore scope-fulfilment opportunities to support workforce retention. Zoe’s research results have already been embedded in policy briefs and commonwealth submissions in relation to strengthening the Medicare taskforce.
Dr Alannah Cooper – St John of God, Subiaco
Alannah leads the Nursing and Midwifery program of research at St John of God Subiaco Hospital. She has built the program by ensuring caregivers understand the importance of an evidence base for practice in the disciplines. To achieve this Alannah has facilitated journal clubs introducing caregivers to published research, empowering them to critique evidence, consider context, and adopt relevant best practices.
Alannah has collaborated with clinical staff in conducting research in areas that include oncology, palliative care, peri-operative care, midwifery, and workforce. Alannah strongly believes research should be meaningful and relevant so it can be translated into practice and beyond to benefit all clinicians and consumers.
Alannah’s practice is intrinsically collaborative. She encourages caregivers to co-design projects and conduct these in accordance with the highest ethical standards resulting in high quality outputs. When sharing project outputs Alannah is generous towards caregivers who are motivated to present their work to the wider nursing and midwifery communities through local and national conferences. They are also encouraged to co-author papers for publication in relevant high-quality journals thereby contributing to the professional knowledge base in the disciplines.
Dr Rosemary Saunders – Edith Cowan University
Rosemary has created many opportunities for herself since obtaining her PhD in 2018. She is driven to improve patient outcomes by embedding evidence-based interventions in clinical practice.
Rosemary has developed strong research partnerships with clinicians through her leadership of multi-disciplinary research studies and has developed projects with multiple service providers across WA. Her research is consumer focussed and models the power of working with community at the conception of a research project.
Rosemary is an outstanding early career research leader at Hollywood Private Hospital providing support for clinicians to shape and develop ideas into research projects. Her own research is highly regarded and has attracted recognition across Ramsay Health Care at a national level.
Rosemary is driven to support clinical staff to engage in research across hospital settings and her research advances the boundaries of nursing and health research. Rosemary is a shining example of a nurse who excels in modelling how nurses can develop a clinically focused, practice-based programme of research and provide research leadership from the very start of their research career.
