PROFESSOR LEANNE AITKEN

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Fulbright Senior Scholar

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“Extensive technological developments over many years have enabled improved survival for many critically ill people. Despite the benefits of this, we have seen an increase in long-term consequences of such care, such as reduced quality of life and significant psychological compromise for these people.”

Professor Leanne Aitken, Chair in Critical Care Nursing, Griffith University and Princess Alexandra Hospital, has won a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to visit the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania for four months in 2010. Her project is to develop and test the feasibility of a complex clinical intervention to improve analgesia and sedation management in critically injured patients.

“Critically ill patients can experience a significant compromise of their psychosocial function in the years following injury,” Leanne said.

“There is evidence that the efficacy of analgesia and sedation management during critical illness affects their psychosocial recovery.”

“Development of an intervention that builds on the above knowledge and incorporates opinions of clinical and research experts in trauma and critical care nursing has the potential to improve recovery and reduce long-term burden for critically injured patients.”

“I will use my scholarship to develop the intervention method and undertake feasibility testing. The information gained from the project will be used to as a basis for the development for a multinational study to test the efficacy of the intervention in multiple healthcare settings.”

Pennsylvania has extensive critical care expertise in strategies to improve the outcomes of patients. Leanne is also looking forward to the opportunity to work with Associate Professor Therese Richmond, who is recognised internationally for her expertise in the field of trauma nursing.

“As the number of trauma patients in Australia is low compared to many other countries and trauma nursing is a relatively new specialty here, access to an extensive team of trauma advanced practice nurses will provide me with new insights that I could not get here.”

Leanne has a PhD in nursing from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, a Bachelor of Health Science with first class honours from Edith Cowan University and a Graduate Diploma of Science in Medicine (Clinical Epidemiology) from the University of Sydney. She has also been awarded the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences Medal at Edith Cowan University and successfully established a Clinical Chair in Critical Care Nursing.