Our approach
We conduct research in all aspects of health professional education, and aim to work collaboratively with other researches in the area. Our staff are educators who work across all levels of health professional education and have insight into the current challenges in the field.
Our research often involves aspects of simulation, but has also focused on bedside teaching, reflective practice and professionalism. We aim to contribute to the growing worldwide literature on effective teaching and learning in health care, and to incorporate our research findings into local practice.
We work with health professional students conducting research within their studies, and researchers completing higher degrees. We welcome other researchers in the field looking to collaborate to contact us.
Our team
Director of Research – Dr Ryan Spencer
Please email Ryan if you are interested in participating in new research within the school. Alternatively, you can contact the lead investigators on current projects.
Research steering committee
- Dr Ryan Spencer
- Dr Anita Phillips
- Associate Professor Cameron Shaw
- Dr Mel White
- Dr Kate McCloskey
Our researchers
Dr Anita Phillips
Dr Anita Phillips is Deputy Director Clinical Studies at Geelong Clinical School and a GP. Her teaching role includes academic support and clinical communication facilitation. She belongs to the Barwon Health iValidate Teaching and Research Faculties, as well as the End Of Life Advisory Committee.
Dr Ryan Spencer
Dr Ryan Spencer is a cardiologist with special interests in simulation and clinical teaching. He has a Masters in Health Professional Education, with a focus on curriculum development. He works for Deakin University, both in curriculum design and clinical teaching, and has clinical commitments at the University Hospital Geelong and Epworth Geelong.
Associate Professor Cameron Shaw
Associate Professor Cameron Shaw is a neurologist and the Director of the Geelong Clinical School. In addition to his clinical and research interests in neuroimmunology, Cameron teaches neurological clinical process and communication to undergraduate and postgraduate trainees, and participates in medical education research with a key goal being to improve the Deakin student experience.
Jenny Bryce
Jenny Bryce is a clinical skills instructor at the Geelong Clinical School and a registered nurse. Her role includes teaching clinical skills to third and fourth-year medical students and assisting with the development, organisation and analysis of clinical skills assessment. She is involved with both the children’s health and the aged care, rehabilitation and palliative care rotations. She also facilitates the Pre-Internship Simulation Module (PRISM), which is a nine-hour module specifically designed for fourth-year students.
Mel White
Mel White is an emergency physician and Director of Simulation at Geelong Clinical School. She has a particular interest in simulation-based teaching and emergency paediatrics. She has completed a medical education degree and a Simulation Fellowship from Monash.
Camille Gordon
Camille Gordon is a clinical skills instructor at the Geelong Clinical School and a registered nurse and midwife. Camille teaches clinical skills to third and fourth-year medical students. She is involved in both the mental health and emergency rotations. She has a keen interest in simulation research particularly in the areas of paediatrics and women’s health.
Dr Kate McCloskey
Dr Kate McCloskey is a general paediatrician and medical director of simulation at Geelong Clinical School. She completed her PhD with the Barwon Infant Study. Kate is particularly interested in child and adolescent research, the translation of simulation into clinical practice and combining high-fidelity simulated resuscitation with communication skills teaching.
Nigel Bellears
Nigel Bellears is a clinical skills instructor and a clinical nurse specialist/intensive care liaison nurse at Barwon Health. His role at Geelong Clinical School includes the development and deliverance of clinical-based curriculum to third and fourth-year medical students. He is involved with the medicine, musculoskeletal medicine, surgery and anaesthetic/intensive care rotations. He has a particular interest in rapid response systems, communication and management of the deteriorating patient.
Current research
Academic Support Program
Main contact: Dr Anita Phillips
This research is assessing the experience of students invited to participate in an Academic Support Program (remediation) as well as the effectiveness of the program. This program focuses on clinical reasoning and reflection on clinical performance, self-assessment of a simulated and recorded clinical encounter and meeting with senior academic mentors.
Research question: Can we develop an Academic Support Program that is accepted by students, sustainable and focuses on clinical reasoning (which also improves exam performance)?
Status: Data collection in progress.
iValidate: General medical patients, values-based goals of management and shared decision-making
Main contact: Dr Anita Phillips
This research assesses the introduction and impact of values-based goals of management forms onto the general medical ward without clinical communication training for staff. Data collected includes demographics of adult patients with life-limiting illness admitted to hospital as well as documentation of goals of management forms.
Further research will be done to evaluate data post-clinical communication training of staff. This is part of a step-wedge design research project aimed at bringing together experts in clinical communication, palliative care, ICU, ethics and law to improve end-of-life care.
Research question: The introduction and impact of values-based goals of management form to improve shared decision-making in end-of-life care.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection and statistical analysis completed. Journal article to be commenced.
Qualitative analysis of logbooks
Main contact: Laurel Weaver
This study identifies themes within postgraduate medical students’ logbook reflections, intended to inform future decisions regarding the value of the logbook.
Take-home message: The logbook encourages medical students to reflect on learning experiences, enabling development of reflective practice – a necessary skill for life-long learning and professional growth.
Status: Presented at conference; article in progress.
Efficacy and options of teaching sensitive patient examination
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection to commence.
Assessment of interdisciplinary learning in the PRISM project
Main contact: Jenny Bryce
This research assesses whether interdisciplinary learning (learning and medical students) adds to the fidelity and long-term retention of learning in a pre-graduation simulation – including assessment of its translation into the first graduate year.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection to commence.
Translation of medical communication and clinical skills programs to intern year
Main contact: Dr Kate McCloskey
Simulation and inter-professional simulation has become part of many health curriculums. This research assesses the student experience of current simulations and inter-professional simulations, and how it translates to effectiveness in the workplace.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection to commence.
Translation of recurrent high-fidelity interdisciplinary and inter-departmental simulation to workplace performance
Main contact: Dr Kate McCloskey
This study assesses the efficacy of recurrent high-fidelity simulation that is aimed at critical care registrars in translating key skills into the workplace.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection underway.
Paediatric SimCom: Implementation and assessment of a consultant program that combines communication around goals of care and paediatric resuscitation scenarios
Main contact: Mike Forrester
This research assesses a novel program that combines communication training around goals of care in children with life-limiting illness and simulation of the resuscitations of those same children.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection underway.
The use of high-fidelity mannequins for nursing competencies in the emergency department
Main contact: Rebecca Stengewis
This research aims to assess whether high-fidelity mannequins improve education and assessment around nursing competencies in a busy regional emergency department.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection to commence.
Efficacy of consultant-level paediatric simulation program in maintaining resuscitation and procedural skills
Main contact: Camille Gordon
As a follow up to research that shows regional paediatricians need several procedural skills that they rarely use (Hardy, in press), this research aims to assess the efficacy of a tailored simulation program at maintaining these skills.
Status: Ethics completed. Data collection to commence.
Medical students participation in a Pre-Internship Simulation Module (PRISM)
Main contact: Jenny Bryce
Deakin University's School of Medicine developed a pre-internship simulation module (PRISM) to assist final-year medical students preparing for clinical internship, with student confidence in core clinical and communication skills evaluated before and after participation.
Take-home message: The transition to internship is stressful for medical students. Deliberate practice in a simulated environment with expert feedback may assist with this transition. Our research showed students' confidence improved in multiple domains relevant to intern practice. These findings have implications for medical training prior to internship. Further investigating knowledge and skill retention would add to these findings.
Status: Complete.
Contact us
Get in touch if you have any questions regarding the Regional Victorian Institute of Simulation Education (ReVISE)
Phone: +61 3 4215 5109
Fax: +61 3 4215 5149
Email ReVISE
Geelong Clinical School
Level 1, 285 Ryrie Street
Geelong, Victoria 3220