Mrs Penny Casey

Penelope is an experienced nurse (30 years), nurse educator (20 years) and early career researcher currently finishing her PhD (Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University). She has a deep understanding of nursing care in hospitals (Students, Graduate Nurses, Enrolled Nurses, RNs), and is passionate about nurse education, delirium and dementia care, and reducing clinical risk and harm in older persons. 

Early Career

Penelope graduated as an RN from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in the late 1980s, after which she pursued her initial interest in infectious diseases & HIV/AIDS (Fairfield Hospital; Grad Dip Nursing Infectious Diseases, Victoria University of Technology) before moving into neurosurgical and high-dependancy unit nursing at The Austin Hospital. During her time here she held the position of RN and ANUM, and completed her Bachelor of Nursing (Hons- First Class, La Trobe University)- Thesis Neurological Assessment in Languages Other Than English (NALOTE). 

Mid Career

In the late1990s- 2022 Penelope held a range of nursing education positions at The Alfred, RMIT, The Royal District Nursing Service, Ringwood Private Hospital, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Eastern Health. During this time she completed her Bachelor of Education (LaTrobe University) and Certificate IV in Training and Adult Assessment (Box Hill TAFE). 

In 2016, Penelope began her PhD with the Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University (part-time) with a research focus on improving delirium recogniton, response and documentation by nurses. During her candidature, she was seconded to Safer Care Victoria to advise on the design and conduct of the Victoria-wide point prevalence survey of delirium (2018). Penelope has been an active committee member of the Australasian Delirium Association since 2017, and with a local team of ADA committee members hosted the ADA 4th Biennial Scientific Meeting in Melbourne. 

And now...

Penelope concluded her CNE role at Eastern Health (2022) with the successful launch of the Clinical Governance Course devised in partnership with Deakin University (School of Business).

She now works as a Research Fellow at the Deakin University Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research - Eastern Health Partnership. Here she is actively engaged in supporting early career researchers, finishing her PhD, and driving research and publication of research aligned with the the NSQHC Standards, and strategic goals of QPS, The Institute for Health Transformation and Eastern Health.

Delirium and Cognitive Impairment (detection, screening, assessment, prevention, management, consumer/clinician experience) in acute, subacute, RACF and palliative care

Nursing Care of Older Persons

Quality and Safety in Nursing Care

Clinical Communication and Handover

Partnering with Patients to improve the quality and safety of care

Nursing Education

Australasian Delirium Association- Committee Member

Delirium: Prevention, recognition and response

Delirium and Cognitive Impairment

Nursing Care (medical/surgical; acute and sub-acute settings)

Change Management

Nursing Education

Research

Tomlinson E, Schnitker L, Casey P. (1-3 Nov 2023). Exploring antipsychotic prescribing patterns and behaviours for people with delirium: A systematic literature review. Australasian Delirium Association 6th Biennial Conference, Sydney, Australia.

Duan, S, Casey P, Street M, Manias E, Tomlinson E. (1-3 Nov 2023). Junior nurses’ experiences of implementing non-pharmacological interventions for delirium management: a qualitative descriptive study. Australasian Delirium Association 6th Biennial Conference, Sydney, Australia.

Casey P, Cross W, Johnson C E, Pope A, Webb-St Mart M, Gaskin L, Darzinš P. (8-10th Sept 2021). Educating nurses is critical for detecting delirium: a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial of an interprofessional delirium education program on nurses’ screening and escalation of delirium. Australasian Delirium Association 5th Biennial Scientific Meeting, Brisbane, Australia.

Gaskin L, Casey P, Webb-St Mart M, Howard T, Power S, Riddell K. (1-4th July 2019). Developing an integrated, interprofessional education framework to optimise practice capability in Delirium and Cognitive Impairment – moving on from the stop, drop, roll (it out), and leave [Poster]. Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators, Annual Conference, Canberra, Australia.

Casey P, Darzinš P, Webb-St Mart M, Baldwin C, Riddell K, Johnson C, Cross W.  (5-7th Sept 2017). Evaluation of a clinical audit process for the detection of delirium and cognitive impairment: results from an Australian health service. Australasian Delirium Association 4th Biennial Scientific Meeting, Melbourne, Australia.

Casey P, Cross W, Webb-St Mart M, Baldwin C, Riddell K, Browne W, Darzinš P. (5-7th Sept 2017). Why is it important to measure rates of delirium? Results from a point prevalence survey of cognitive impairment and delirium. Australasian Delirium Association 4th Biennial Scientific Meeting, Melbourne, Australia.

2018 Deakin Chair in Nursing Research Award

2017 Best Long Research Presentation - Eastern Health Research Forum

Current Research Projects:

Evaluating the efficacy of a digital App to enhance patient-centred nursing handover (current) (PI- J. Considine, Deakin University/Eastern Health)

Driving quality in delirium care through a patient-centred monitoring system in palliative care (P.I. - A. Hosie, University of Notre Dame)

Projects Supervised:

BN(Hons) 2023- Modifications to Medical Emergency Team Activation Criteria on Discharge from the Postanaesthetic Care Unit

BN(Hons) 2022- Junior nurses’ experiences of implementing non-pharmacological interventions for delirium management: a qualitative descriptive study