ProfessorAlison Hutchinson

Deakin Distinguished Professor Alison Hutchinson is a Professor of Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University, Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University and is the Chair in Nursing at Barwon Health. Her primary research interest centres on improving care through knowledge translation. As Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research, she provides strategic direction for the Centre, comprising more than 40 scholars undertaking research in the areas of patient safety, patient experience and workforce development. She has the distinction of being one of only a few Australian nurses to have successfully completed a formal postdoctoral fellowship program overseas, having trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada. Professor Hutchinson received a national fellowship in knowledge translation award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and a provincial fellowship award from Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (now Alberta Innovates). She is internationally recognised for her implementation science/knowledge translation research and is the Protocols Editor for journals, Implementation Science and Implementation Science Communications. She has attracted competitive research funding from a range of funding bodies. With more than 200 publications, she has co-authored several book chapters and has published widely in international peer-reviewed journals. Professor Hutchinson has supervised to completion 13 doctoral and 11 master's students and has also provided mentorship for 5 postdoctoral fellows. In 2019, in recognition of her sustained contribution to nursing research, Professor Hutchinson was awarded the title of Deakin Distinguished Professor, the highest honour Deakin University can bestow upon an academic staff member. In July 2021, she was inducted into the Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.