Associate ProfessorDebra Kerr

Research focuses on decision support and communication with applied research to enhance the safety and quality of health care. Areas of interest include the process of communication between nurses and patients in clinical contexts such as bedside nursing handover and in acute medical/surgical ward settings. She has also led projects in which evidence based practice and decision support tools have been developed and validated in the clinical context, particularly in the emergency setting for cardiac conditions.
An area of specific focus, intranasal medical administration, has been explored as a novel and safe mode of drug delivery for naloxone and fentanyl.

Methodological approaches have predominantly focused on quantitative methods including randomised controlled trials, feasibility studies, audits and surveys. However, I have supervised numerous PhD and Master projects who have utilised qualitative methods.

I have published over 110 peer reviewed articles and presented at international and national medical and nursing conferences. It is my aim to direct future research on the Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, in particular, the impact of communication skills training for enhancing quality and safe nursing care.