Research Team
Meet our team of world class international researchers from a wide range of backgrounds with diverse expertise
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Rachel Macdiarmid
Dr Rachel Macdiarmid is a Senior Lecturer and the Programme Leader of the Master of Nursing Science (MNSc). She has led the Master of Nursing Science since its development in 2018. Rachel’s current research is informed by nineteen years of teaching experience in nursing education. Rachel is the principal investigator of two research projects. Her research focuses on themotivations and experiences of nursing students enrolled in Graduate Entry Nursing (GEN) programmes and the development and evaluation of a responsive and authentic learning approach for GEN students. Rachel has taught for many years on the Bachelor of Health Science (Nursing) and is the course leader for two post-graduate nursing papers. She has led the Master of Nursing Science since its development in 2018.
Virginia Jones
Virginia Jones is the Programme Lead for the Master of Nursing Science programme at the University of Otago, which was the first program of its type in New Zealand. She was one of the main contributors to the development and roll out of this program in
2016. This included developing curriculum documentation for the New Zealand nurse regulatory body and University approvals and establishing clinical relationships and access to clinical placements over the South Island of New Zealand. She has been involved in nursing education since 2014, and teaches research methods and
professional practice.
Virginia’s main research interests are in Family Nursing; Long Term Condition Management particularly diabetes amongst Pacific Peoples; and Nursing Education. She is part of the research team working with Melbourne University looking at Graduate
Entry programmes across Australasia.
Rhona Winnington
Rhona is a registered nurse with a background in emergency medicine, general surgery and more recently community palliative care. She is also a sociologist, having gained her PhD in Sociology at the University of Auckland, and has a keen interest in the fields of institutional power, deviance and labelling. This combination of nursing and sociology is at the heart of Rhona's research interests as it offers a continually shifting lens through which to examine our practices in supporting those at end-of-life and how our clinical obligations contain and constrain choices at this life point. Rhona is currently a Senior Lecturer in Nursing at AUT, she supervises Master's and PhD students and her current research is focused on assisted dying services.
Rebecca Jarden
Rebecca Jarden is a registered nurse and lecturer, leading the Intensive Care Nursing course, University of Melbourne, and a Nursing Research Fellow, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia. Rebecca studied psychology and anthropology in a BA, DipGrad, University of Otago, a BHSc (Nursing), AUT University, and post-graduate nursing certificates at Thames Valley University, London, and Victoria University of Wellington. Rebecca completed her MNursing at Victoria University, then investigated nurse wellbeing in her PhD, AUT University, New Zealand. Her post-doctoral research continues health workforce focus, exploring wellbeing during transition and beyond. Rebecca enjoys time with family/friends, exploring new places, food, art and music.
Patricia McClunie-Trust
Dr Patricia McClunie-Trust is a Principal Lecturer in the Master of Nursing, Master of Professional Practice and Master of Nursing Science programmes at Wintec Pūkenga. Patricia is a professional supervisor with a particular interest in capability development for advanced practice. She has supervised postgraduate research students undertaking projects and dissertations in nursing, physiotherapy, midwifery, and social care for the past fifteen years. Her research focuses on professionalism and professional practice in nursing. She is a member of an international collaborative research team exploring the motivations and experiences of graduate-entry Master of Nursing Science students. Patricia has been a member of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, Alberta, Canada, since 2011. Her governance roles include membership of the HRC approved Wintec Human Ethics Research Committee and Editor-in-Chief for the Kaitiaki Nursing Research Journal.
Kay Shannon
Kay has a strong clinical background in a variety of settings, with practice experience in rural general, domiciliary and emergency nursing, occupational health and aged residential care. Kay is currently a Senior Lecturer and Student Experience Lead in the Nursing Department at AUT. Her research interests include
aged care innovation, collaborative governance networks and innovation, nurses in aged care, quality care in aged care, loneliness, social inclusion, dementia, age-friendliness and graduate entry nurse education.
Rosemary Turner
I joined the department of nursing as an academic at the University of Melbourne in 2019. Prior to this, I was working as a Clinical Nurse Educator (CNE) in the Intensive Care Unit of a major metropolitan hospital here in Melbourne. I first started working as a Registered Nurse (RN) in 1988 and after a few years of general nursing quickly found my passion in the specialty practice area of Intensive Care. Throughout my career in specialty practice I’ve worked in a variety of roles from Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Associate Nurse Unit Manager (ANUM), Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) and finally Academic.
I love maintaining a connection with interprofessional colleagues in ICU, and the opportunity academia offers to further develop and explore the best and most innovative ways to engage and educate the critical care nurses of the future. My current research interest relates to the development of Pedagogically Rich Activities (PRA’s) to enhance the transition from theory to practice for nurses in Critical Care settings and the motivations and experiences of graduate-entry nurses
Rhonda McKelvie
Dr Rhonda McKelvie is an RN of 30 years with almost 20 years in acute paediatrics, specialising in children's Oncology/Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant nursing. In more recent years Rhonda has been involved in nursing professional development projects, nationally in the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit, and in regional cancer services.
In April of 2020 Rhonda joined Massey and stood up the new Graduate Entry to Nursing (GEN) Programme now in its final semester with the first cohort entering transition. Massey’s GEN is a national programme with a total of 48 students across two cohorts located from the far north to the far south.
Jan Dewar
Dr Jan Dewar is a Nurse Lecturer and the Clinical lead for the BHSc undergraduate and MNSc GEN programme, department of nursing, Auckland University of Technology. She has an interest in health safety and quality, and health experience and outcomes. Jan (Ngāi Tahu) supervises Masters and Doctoral students using qualitative methodologies and research taking a Kaupapa Māori approach. Jan teaches Practical Leadership in Health Professional Practice.
Jan has 10 years experience as Nurse Director for Medicine, Surgery and Emergency Services and more recently Associate Director of Nursing Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora acute settings. Jan is currently an auditor for the DAA Group completing HealthCert audits of acute health settings throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
