STaRR researchers continue to shine

Congratulations to Holly Lewtas and April Chiu and their respective research teams on their recent peer-reviewed publications!  

Holly, a community health nurse from Barwon Health, pictured (right) with research team member Kaia De Burgh, participated in the STaRR Emerging Researcher Training program in 2021 and was awarded a STaRR Emerging Research Grant in 2022. Supported by her STaRR Mentor, Dr Michael Field, Holly and her team conducted a feasibility study of a trauma-informed communication tool. The research team found that the tool demonstrated a high degree of acceptability and applicability among a sample of clients with a history of trauma and community health clinicians. The researchers also identified several positive impacts (e.g., prevention of re-traumatisation) and some negative impacts (e.g., unsupportive responses from health professionals). For more details about the tool and the outcomes of the feasibility study, check out the full article here. 

April Chiu, Sarah Huntly, and Breanna McPhee from Barwon Health participated in the STaRR program in 2021 and were awarded a STaRR Emerging Researcher Grant in 2023. Supported by their STaRR Mentor Dr Declan Hennessy, April and her team conducted a study to identify the barriers and enablers of an exercise-based prehabilitation service for surgical patients with breast cancer and medical professionals in a regional healthcare setting. Their research highlighted the need to integrate exercise professionals into preoperative teams to facilitate exercise prehabilitation within limited time frames. Patients in their study reported being motivated to improve their fitness as an enabler of prehabilitation. Clinicians reported time constraints in pre-operative appointments as a barrier to prehabilitation. The researchers also made some recommendations for enhancing the delivery of prehabilitation in the context of breast cancer surgery. Read more here. 

Both of these papers were published in high quality journals in their respective fields. Both projects have had and will continue to have tangible impacts on practice. Well done Holly and April and your teams.