Research Fellow

PRIMARY DETAIL

We are seeking an exceptional Research Fellow with a growing track record as a health services researcher to lead an exciting new research project to improve the health system’s response when patients are harmed.

THE ROLE

Salary Package: Research Fellow (Level B), from $115,787 to $136,995 p.a., plus 17% employer's superannuation and annual leave loading.

Appointment type: Full-time, fixed-term position for 2 years

Location: Macquarie University (North Ryde)

The Role

Health systems in high income countries use incident management systems (IMS) to collect incident data when patients are harmed (adverse events), e.g., due to errors in medication or surgical complications. IMSs involve reporting, managing, analysing, and learning from incidents, investigating serious incidents, and acting in response. When patients are harmed, IMSs are essential for health care organisations to respond to, and learn from adverse events, to prevent other patients suffering a similar incident.

Internationally in health care, there is clear evidence that IMSs and associated investigations are not effective in systematically reducing the frequency of incidents causing harm to patients. There is an absence of evidence about effective incident analysis and investigation methods in health care, and enablers and barriers to the implementation of resulting action plans.

Researchers at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) at Macquarie University and a multi-state team of Chief and Associate Investigators are partnering with the three largest Australian states (New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, and Victoria), alongside the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), to develop and integrate evidence-based methods into practice and state and national guidance to improve the response and learning from incidents when patients are harmed. The outcomes of these aims will include the development of evidence-based best practice guidance and decision support for health services to effectively respond when patients are seriously harmed; a world-first understanding of how artificial intelligence can be used by health services to improve the analysis and learning from the hundreds of thousands of incidents reported each year in Australia; and the first detailed Australian research into costing of health service staff time to use IMSs.

We are seeking an exceptional Research Fellow with a growing track record as a researcher to lead this exciting new research project. The 4-year project is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Grant together and our health system partners. The work will be carried out onsite at Macquarie University (MQ) and across the four jurisdictions.

About You

As a researcher with a growing profile, you will coordinate the day to day activities of the research team and project deliverables in collaboration with the Chief Investigator. You will bring your excellent project management, research, communication, and interpersonal skills to work closely with our stakeholders, including healthcare policy makers, hospital executives, clinicians, and

consumers, to ensure that Project aims are met. You will model behaviours that align with the Macquarie University vision and values and foster these in your team, students and the broader community to create an inclusive and high-performance culture.

About Us

Macquarie is the university of pioneering minds. Globally recognised as one of Australia’s leading research universities, Macquarie is a place where extraordinary new possibilities come to light. We’ve helped people to hear, introduced wireless internet technology to the world, and broken through traditional boundaries by appointing Australia's first female vice-chancellor.

Macquarie University's Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences builds on our aspiration to have the nation's first fully integrated Academic Health Sciences Centre under a university's leadership. It brings together the excellent work of medical and allied-health clinicians and researchers across the University and around the country, with unparalleled access to world-leading clinical resources and research facilities found only on our campus. Our Faculty hosts the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), an internationally acclaimed powerhouse researching health systems, e-health and patient safety.

The Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) is an internationally leading health services research facility. AIHI is located at the North Ryde Campus of Macquarie University and brings together four well-known, leading and highly successful research centres that work in the separate but related areas of complexity science, implementation science, health informatics, health outcomes, human factors and health system design, health economics, and health systems and safety. AIHI is a multidisciplinary environment and operates with a philosophy of teamwork and mutual professional support and respect. We have a strong environment for excellent scholarship, research activities and output. The position is in the Patient Safety and Appropriateness Research Stream, led by Associate Professor Peter Hibbert located in the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science (CHRIS) at AIHI.

Macquarie is a university engaged with the real and often complex problems and opportunities that define our lives. Since our foundation 54 years ago, we have aspired to be a different type of university. Over the years, we’ve grown to become the centre of a vibrant local and global community. Connect with us today.

To Apply

To be considered for this position apply online by submitting your CV and a separate cover letter (of no more than 3 pages) that demonstrates how you meet the following selection criteria:

Essential

• A PhD in a relevant discipline

• Demonstrated project management experience in a research setting

• Leadership skills and experience in research supervision

• Proven ability to work with a range of stakeholders across healthcare including policy makers, hospital executives, clinicians, and consumers

• Experience and interest in multi-methods research

• Experience with different qualitative data collections, research designs and data analysis for health research

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a demonstrated ability to prepare and publish in high impact quality journals

• Expertise in the drafting of final reports including journal articles and technical reports

• Demonstrated capacity to present papers at conferences and workshops

• A good understanding of the Australian health care system

Desirable

• Experience in writing research proposals and securing research grants

• Understanding of patient safety/safety science

• A demonstrated commitment to promoting and advancing the principles of equity, inclusion and diversity will be highly regarded

Role enquiries: Dr. Kirk Olsen, Research Manager, [email protected]

Applications Close: Sunday 18 February 2024 at 11:59 PM AEDT

If you're already part of the Macquarie Group (MQ University, U@MQ, MQ Health, MGSM), you'll need to apply through your employee Workday account. To apply for this job: Login to Workday and go to the Careers App > Find Jobs.

Applications Close:

18/02/2024 11:59 PM

Diversity and Inclusion

Innovation and ingenuity thrive at Macquarie University when diversity, equity and inclusion take centre stage. At the University, we embrace a culture where diversity of background, experience and perspective are fundamental to our success.

We do not discriminate on gender identity, age, culture, disability, sexuality, Indigeneity, family and caring responsibilities or religion. See our journey towards leadership in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education.

Flexible Work
 

At Macquarie, we believe by providing flexibility in when, where and how work is done, we can support our staff to manage their personal commitments, while optimising their work performance and contributions to the University. See how we lead in flexible work to enable an outcome focused and inclusive workplace. To learn more about our culture and hiring process, explore our Candidate Resource Hub .