Josea is a dedicated trauma and emergency nursing researcher with extensive experience in clinical trials and healthcare improvement initiatives. Currently serving as a CNC Trauma Research Coordinator at Gold Coast University Hospital, Josea plays a key role in coordinating, monitoring, and screening multiple studies, including EPO-Trauma, FEISTY-II, and PREDICT-TBI.
With a background in both nursing and psychological science, Josea has contributed to numerous research projects, focusing on trauma care, emergency medicine, and paediatric sepsis. As a Research Assistant, Josea has been instrumental in data collection, consent processes, adverse event monitoring, and HREC applications.
Josea’s research contributions extend to peer-reviewed publications on emergency department presentations, police-involved patient care, and mass gathering health services. Additionally, Josea is actively involved in research education, providing training for ICU and ED staff. With a commitment to advancing trauma research and clinical practice, Josea continues to influence evidence-based healthcare through multidisciplinary collaboration and academic contributions.
Kieran is a paediatic nurse with over a decade of experience in inpatient and emergency settings, he joined the GCH Emergency Care Research Group in 2020 as a research. He supports the ‘Paediatric’ pillars in multiple projects, including the RESPOND RCT, PROMPT Bolus RCT, SENTINEL and RAPIDS Studies. Kieran has a special interest in Paediatric emergency research and Sepsis studies at the Gold Coast University Hospital emergency department.
He is a member of the Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International collaborative (PREDICT)
Aoife is a research nurse who joined the GCH Emergency Care Research Group in 2021. She supports the ‘Vulnerable Populations’ and ‘Ultrasound’ pillars in multiple projects, including the ARISE Fluids RCT, DART3, BUCKLE and CALD. Aoife has a special interest in emergency research and is involved with the SAMIE and POKIE studies that are being conducted at the Gold Coast University Hospital emergency department.
Composition, Quality and Delivery of Major Haemorrhage Protocols (MHP) and critical bleeding clinical practice guidelines in hospitals across Queensland Health
Quick facts
Ms Elizabeth Wake, A/Prof Shane George, Mrs Tash Adams, Dr Caitlin Brandenburg, Dr Clinton Gibbs, Dr Don Campbell, Dr Alistair Hamilton, Dr James Winearls
Associate Investigators: Dr John Casey, Dr Jack Righton, Ms Michelle Jeffress, Ms Paressa Cresswell, Dr Dan Bodnar
Major bleeding is a leading cause of death in trauma patients. Blood product replacement is a key component of damage control resuscitation aimed at limiting coagulopathy until definitive control of bleeding is achieved. Although Major Haemorrhage Protocols (MHP) are now widely used in the initial resuscitation of traumatically injured patients (1), protocols can vary based upon individual institutions' capabilities and processes. Within Australia, the National Blood Authority 2011 Patient Blood Management Guideline Module 1: Critical Care/ Massive Transfusion (2) recommended institutions develop standardized MHP to guide clinicians regarding the dose, timing and ratio of blood component therapy for bleeding trauma patients. However, it is currently unknown if these guidelines are implemented and if so, what institutional variations occur. While the guidelines provide a robust review of the evidence base for MHP, there is little information about the logistics of MHP implementation. Our project aims are firstly to compare the available trauma bleeding protocols across Queensland for content and quality. Secondly, we wish to understand the institution's capabilities of delivering an MHP in terms of the structure and processes available to them. Thirdly we want to explore the experiences of clinicians involved in delivering an MHP for trauma patients in both tertiary, rural and remote hospitals within Queensland. Expected benefits are to identify potential disparity of care for trauma patients in terms of MHP content, availability of resources and access to blood products. This information can help guide improvements in education, blood products availability and cost-effective care across Queensland.
Grants Awarded
Dr Caitlin Brandenburg is a speech pathologist turned researcher who completed her PhD at UQ in 2015. She is a part-time Research Fellow for the Watch-house study, which is investigating the provision of emergency care to detainees in police watch-houses across Queensland. She also holds roles as Health Practitioner Research Fellow at Metro South Health, and Honorary Adjunct Assistant Professor at Bond University.
Caitlin has over 30 academic publications and more than $1 million in competitive research funding in fields as diverse as audiology, occupational therapy, palliative care, trauma, emergency care, speech pathology and paediatric critical care. She specialises in health services evaluation, qualitative and Knowledge Translation methodology. Caitlin’s passion is in supporting frontline clinicians to engage in research.
- 2016 Stroke Society of Australasia Nursing & Allied Health Scientific Award
- 2016 FreshScience Queensland finalist
Riku has a decade of Emergency Nursing experience in Finland and Australia, with the last 5 years spent focusing on improving the care we provide to our paediatric population. His passion for Paediatric Critical Care has led him to coordinate several international multicentre RCTs as well as help implement an array of studies; from fluid resuscitating the septic child to improving safety in the paediatric emergency intubation.
Riku hopes to one day be able to use his experience to conduct his own study, but in the mean time he spends most of his free time chasing his two energetic boys around the beaches/skateparks of Tugun.
After finishing medical school in 2014, I discovered my love for Emergency Medicine. I commenced the ACEM training program in 2017 after being offered a position at the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre and completed my Fellowship requirements in mid-2022. I have a longstanding interest in mathematics, which was the subject of my undergraduate degree, and pursued a Master's degree in Biostatistics while completing my ED training. This helped me to achieve my current position as ED Research Fellow at Gold Coast University Hospital.
In many ways, statistics is the language of the medical literature, and I have found this special skill to be invaluable as I pursue my interest in medical research. I enjoy working with teams to analyse data and write papers as well as sharing my knowledge of clinical medicine and critical appraisal with junior doctors. Outside of work, I like playing chess and spending time with Roland, my big black poodle.
My research interests include the COVERED COVID research program and multiple ultrasound research studies through the Sonar Group. For my next project, I am looking to develop an audit program for GCUH ED.
Awards and Achievements
- Master's of Biostatistics
- Member of the Sonar Group (2022)
Emma is a research coordinator who joined the GCH Emergency Care Research Group in 2020. She supports the ‘Vulnerable Populations’ and ‘Appropriate Emergency Care’ pillars in multiple projects, including the ARISE Fluids RCT, COVERED COVID, BEST-DKA, SPEED-ED and CALD projects. Emma has a special interest in cardiology research and was previously involved with the LEGEND and SAMIE cardiac studies. She additionally works as a research nurse and sessional academic for the School of Nursing at Queensland University of Technology.
Currently, Emma is undertaking the Master of Medical Research program at Griffith University investigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiac-related emergency department presentations.
Exploring Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Emergency Department (CALD ED) study: Phase 1 Quantitative study
Quick facts
Prof Julia Crilly, Dr Dinesh Palipana, Ms Amy Sweeny, Mr Robert Lee, Dr Ping Zhang, Dr Wietske Blom-Ham, Ms Marina Chand, Professor Cindy Shannon and Dr Shahina Braganza
Exploring Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Emergency Department (CALD ED) study: Phase 1 Quantitative study. Gold Coast Health Collaborative Research Grant Scheme 2021.
This study aims to explore cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) in the Emergency Department (ED). It is hoped that the outcomes of this study will help inform subsequent research and clinical evidence-based strategies to support research sustainability regarding patients from CALD backgrounds who present to the ED.
Grants Awarded
Enhancing clinician research: A mixed methods study examining Australian and New Zealand specialist trainees’ experiences and research outputs
Quick facts
Dr Pauline Stehlik
Dr Pauline Stehlik, Dr Rachel Bourke, Professor David Henry, Dr Caitlin Brandenburg, Dr Christy Noble, Dr Caitlin Withers, Professor Adrian Barnett, Professor Sharon Mickan, Professor Paul Glasziou, Dr Alexandra Bannach-Brown, Professor David Ellwood
High quality healthcare research underpins quality patient care. It asks patient relevant questions and measures meaningful outcomes, uses appropriate study design and statistical analysis, along with open and transparent publishing methods. This enables clinicians to access, understand, and apply the findings to their patients and provide them the best possible care.
However, it has been estimated that up to 85% of all research is of low quality, with poor research questions, inadequate designs and unnecessary duplication, costing ~$100 billion annually. This number is likely even greater as poor research then leads to low-value healthcare, such as unnecessary tests, procedures, and treatments.
There have been international efforts to combat this crisis in research. However, there has been little to no focus on professional medical associations, such as specialty training colleges and their educators. All specialist doctors in Australia are trained through these Colleges, including in research skills and produce ~3,000 new fellows each year.
Our review of 58 Australian and New Zealand specialist medical training colleges and their subspecialty divisions found that, while 55 require trainees to complete a project as their primary method of learning about research, the majority did not require formal research methods training, nor supervision by a research experienced supervisor. This is likely to be counterproductive, placing trainees at risk of conducting poor quality projects and producing fellows that may not appreciate how quality research contributes to positive patient care.
Several other colleges in Australia and overseas have begun to question the value of the current system and have been calling for change. We do too.
This study will inform a larger program of work that aims to improve this research training system and by understanding what is happening in practice; namely the quality of trainee experience and the quality of the research itself."
