Faculty/School
Faculty of Health
Topic status
We're looking for students to study this topic.
Primary Supervisor
- Position
- Associate Professor
- Division / Faculty
- Faculty of Health
Other QUT supervisors
- Position
- Lecturer
- Division / Faculty
- Faculty of Health
Overview
Dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia. Preparing our future nursing workforce to provide evidence informed and compassionate care for people living with dementia is essential for their quality of life. This project investigates the impact of integrating community-driven education, specifically the Dementia Friend Program supported by a guest lecture from a person living with dementia, and a practical environmental audit into the first-year nursing curriculum. The primary aim is to evaluate whether this structured theoretical approach improves students' knowledge of and attitudes toward people living with dementia before they enter clinical environments.
Research engagement
The successful student will be involved in the data analysis phase of this study. They will be asked to clean survey data collected via an online survey platform and to complete descriptive data analysis. There will also be opportunity to complete more complex data analysis with the research team and contribute to wrting a manuscript to report finding. The student will be invited to be a co-author on the manuscript to be published in a relevant journal.
Research activities
The activities described above will be completed under the supervision of Associate Professor Margaret MacAndrew who leads a program of research focused on improving the care of people living with dementia.
Research skills
During this experience the student will gain skills in the ethical use and management of research data and basic data analysis and reporting skills
Outcomes
It is expected that the results of this research will be published in a relevant journal and presented at a national nursing education conference.
Skills and experience
The ideal candidate should have an interest in research data management and analysis and have skills in using an Excel spreadsheet to conduct basic computations.
Start date
2 November, 2026End date
19 February, 2027Location
N-block Kelvin Grove
Additional information
The student will be given a desk to use in the Dementia Training Australia offices on level 6 of N-block. All resources required to complete the aforementioned tasks will be provided.
Keywords
Contact
Margaret MacAndrew
3138 5956
margaret.macandrew@qut.edu.au