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Keynote VII - Recalibrating our Global Efforts through Strengthening Health Research

Keynote Sessions
Title: Recalibrating our Global Efforts through Strengthening Health Research
Speaker: Associate Professor Dr. Frank Donnelly

Biography:
Frank Donnelly, PhD, SFHEA, serves as Dean and Head of Adelaide Nursing School at the University of
Adelaide’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Beginning his nursing career at the Royal Adelaide
Hospital, he later specialized in neurosurgical and intensive care nursing. Dr. Donnelly holds a PhD
focused on nursing knowledge and clinical placement experiences. He is recognized as an Education
Specialist and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), and received the Stephen Cole the
Elder Award for Excellence in teaching from the University of Adelaide in 2019.

Abstract:
The global care community has responded to COVID-19 with a collective will and capability unlike
any previous health challenge (Bookholane et al., 2021). The pandemic has simultaneously exposed
flaws in health care systems while providing an opportunity for innovation, passion and commitment.
The many lives that have been lost require that nursing, as the largest healthcare profession, takes
a lead in the development of more informed systems and processes, while generating evidence that
substantiates our impact. Key to this recalibration will be research.

This presentation will consider the opportunity to recalibrate our global efforts in the form of
a research proposal. Like all good research activity, we need to scope our topic, and then consider
the design, population, methods, methodology, data and our intended audience. A reasonable first
question is, ‘What makes health research stronger?’.

Beginning with a scoping activity, literature suggests nursing and other health care research is
sophisticated, well-constructed, rich and applied. It is however important to ask if nurse-led research
reflects our role as leaders and influencers in health policy, governance and funding. Does nurse-led
research have the same impact on policy and procedures as other disciplines? Many of us live in
a world where funding, clinical outcomes and existing hierarchies work against the full integration
of nursing research and health outcomes.

Our research design should therefore be developed with global goals in mind. The strength of our
research grows when we consider how we collaborate not just locally or nationally but internationally.
Similarly, the population, methods and methodology of our global research designs must remain
integral and transparent to our research activity. The rise of AI gives us unprecedented capability to
communicate across languages and cultures, we have a collective will, skill set and desire, we have
the strength to act.

Bookholane H, Vervoort D, Manoj M, Malave-Trowbridge D, Jumbam DT. 2021 Recalibrating global
health: how COVID-19 can bring us together. Journal of Global Health Reports.

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