EXPERTS SEARCH

I am a Registered Nurse with extensive clinical experience across diverse healthcare settings, supporting patients with a wide range of care needs.  My most recent clinical work has been in renal, providing care to patients with complex needs and preferences.

I am passionate about nursing education and currently serve as a Lecturer in Nursing. I guide and mentor future nurses, helping them develop not only essential clinical skills, holistic patient assessment, and health promotion, but also critical thinking, professional judgement, and reflective practice. I aim to foster person-centred care, compassion, respect, and effective communication, preparing students to provide high-quality, safe, and culturally responsive care across diverse healthcare settings.

Dr Rebecca Bergin is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Health Transformation, Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research, and School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of General Practice and Centre for Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne, and the Cancer Epidemiology Division at Cancer Council Victoria.

Her research aims to understand and address inequities in cancer outcomes, quality of care and patient experience by optimising pathways to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Her research interests include early cancer diagnosis, inequalities such as rural-urban, socio-economic and age-related disparities in cancer outcomes and experiences, consumer involvement, health policy and health services research.

She currently co-chairs the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) Prevention and Early Detection Engine Room, and is a member of the PC4 Scientific Committee. In 2020, Dr Bergin was awarded a Victorian Cancer Agency Early Career Research Fellowship to investigate the diagnostic pathways of people aged under 50 with colorectal cancer in Victoria. She is also an investigator on a MRFF Early to Mid-Career Researcher grant awarded in 2023 for the Equitable Cancer Outcomes across Rural and Remote Australia (ECORRA) Trial. 

My area of research is currently focused on the Interprofessional Collaborative Education Program (IPCEP) in diabetes and diabetic foot care. This work aims to enhance teamwork, communication, and patient self-management among healthcare professionals to reduce complications and prevent amputations in individuals with diabetes. Rooted in public health, Social Medicine, and Community Health, the research strives to improve diabetic foot care outcomes by fostering effective multidisciplinary collaboration and education.

Melissa is a lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University. Her primary research interest focuses on breastfeeding, prematurity,  and practices in the neonatal setting. Melissa is an experienced nurse and midwife with expertise in midwifery, neonatal care, community nursing, service planning, and research. Currently Melissa is employed as a lecturer in the undergraduate and postgraduate midwifery programs, and the undergraduate nursing degree. She is the Chair of the Academic Integrity & Progress Committee for the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University. Melissa’s PhD explores the influences on mothers who are breastfeeding a late preterm infant within the context of a Special Care Nursery. Her PhD was guided by a Naturalistic Inquiry and Focused Ethnography, using a mixed methods design. 

With a clinical background in acute and critical care nursing, Melissa Bloomer has two primary areas of research:-

1. End-of-life care
   This program of research focuses on the care provided to those who are dying, from neonates to adults, and across care settings, including acute care, critical care, aged care and community settings. Her research focuses on recognition of dying, care transitions, end-of-life communication and decision-making, family care, clinician preparedness for dying and death and care of family members before and after death.
   
   
2.  Care for people with diverse cultural characteristics
   Understanding who clinicians care for is critical to how and what care is provided. Exploring the unique and varied needs, values and preferences of individuals and their significant others is critically important. This program of research seeks to explore and examine how individuals' cultural characteristics are identified, accommodated and used to inform clinical care and promote respect for personhood. Of equal importance is how researchers can optimise equity for people with diverse cultural characteristics through research participation.

Methodological Expertise: qualitative research methods; mixed method research, audit, eDelphi, systematic, integrative and scoping reviews

In 2020, Melissa was named Postdoctoral Researcher of the year by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC); a significant achievement in recognition of her contribution to palliative care in acute and critical care settings.

In 2019, Melissa was the recipient of an Endeavour Executive Leadership Award. This highly prestigious award enabled Melissa to spend six weeks at the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster Univeristy, UK, undertaking research related to volunteers in end of life care.

Melissa also holds several external leadership roles including:
* Chair, Bolton Clarke national Human Research Ethics Committee
* Life Member & Fellow, Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN)
* Chair, End-of-Life Advisory Panel, ACCCN
* Member, Research Advisory Panel, ACCCN
* Editor, Palliative Medicine (Q1)
* Associate Editor, Intensive and Critical Care Nursing (Q1);