Mary FitzGerald was appointed by the School of Nursing & Midwifery and the Royal Hobart Hospital as Professor of Nursing Practice Development in November 2008. She has a leadership role at Royal Hobart Hospital with a team of thirty clinical nurse educators. Using a Practice Development Framework for research and practice change she aims to support the highest standards of person centred nursing care by facilitating strong clinical leadership, workforce reform and evidence based practice.
Career Summary
Mary has a wealth of experience both as a nurse and as an academic. As a senior clinician with more than twenty years clinical experience she came to Australia in 1992 to study at the University of New England. After completing her PhD, she worked as Deputy Head and subsequently as Acting Head of the Department of Clinical Nursing, The University of Adelaide and Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 2001 she joined the staff of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at The University of Newcastle as Professor of Nursing based at Gosford Hospital and Central Coast Health where she facilitated practice development initiatives and created links between the health service and the international practice development community. In 2005 she was appointed to James Cook University as Professor of Nursing and Director of Research where she introduced and coordinated a professional doctorate of nursing specifically for senior nurses who want to generate evidence in their workplace. She has supervised eight PhD candidates, two masters by research candidates, thirteen Master of Nursing Science and two Bachelor of Nursing (Hons) candidates through to successful completion. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing Australia.
Research Interests
Her research interests cover the broad area of clinical nursing with a particular focus on workforce and practice development. She has a strong research track record as both a leader and member of externally competitively funded research studies. Professor FitzGerald has consistently led Practice Development initiatives since her work in Oxford. She is an active member of the International Practice Development Collaboration. She has published widely, is regularly invited to give conference papers nationally and internationally, and has been engaged as an external examiner for a number of universities in Australia and overseas. She is a member of the Board for the International Journal of Nursing Studies and the Journal of Older People Nursing, she is a reviewer for the International Journal of Nursing Practice, The Journal of Clinical Nursing and the Journal of Evidence Based Practice. Professor FitzGerald is a member of the Research Advisory Group for the Australia and New Zealand Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery.
Teaching
Contributes to the BN(Hons) seminar series
Selected Publications:- Lakeman R & FitzGerald M, 2009, 'Ethical Suicide Research: a survey of researchers', International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, pgs. 10-17
- Lakeman R & FitzGerald M, 2009, 'The ethics of suicide research: The view of ethics committee members', Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, pgs. 13-19
- Keatinge D, Stevenson K, FitzGerald M, 2009, 'Parents' perceptions and needs of children's hospital discharge information', International Journal of Nursing Practice, pgs. 341-347
- Pearson A, Vaughan B, FitzGerald M, 1996, Nursing Models for Practice, 2nd Ed, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford
- Pearson A, Vaughan B, FitzGerald M, 2005, Nursing Models in Practice, 3rd Ed, Elsevier Science Publishers, Oxford
Full Publication List
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