Associate Professor
Karen Theobald

Biography

Associate Professor, Karen Theobald is the Academic Lead Education, in the School of Nursing (SoN), Queensland University of Technology. She is also the Postgraduate Study Area Coordinator for Health Professional Education. She has:

• worked in a variety of leadership positions as a Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer, Lecturer  and also worked in a number of fractional appointments as well as sessional appointments in a range of  teaching, research and service roles at QUT
• extensive teaching and learning experience and demonstrated leadership in curriculum design, implementation and evaluation for both the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the SoN. Also experienced with  ensuring internal and external professional accreditation requirements are met in QUT course delivery.
• led the development and expansion of a number of new course designs in the School of Nursing undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Led the expansion and development of the popular postgraduate emergency nursing study area in the SoN (especially the development of the first Graduate Certificate (Emergency Nursing) and subsequent Master of Nursing (Emergency Nursing). She has enjoyed a close working partnership with industry partners across the state, especially the Statewide emergency nurse educator group.
• completed her PhD in 2002 looking  at: The influences on post discharge recovery following coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Subsequently, extending work in this area supervising two PhD students to completion. Over the last decade she has moved to consolidate research in Workforce Preparation (active learning; students as partners; interprofessional learning; simulation; peer mentoring etc.), ensuring outcomes reflect excellent scholarship and contribute to the evidence base and practice.
• In 2021 she was successfully awarded recognition as a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK, the highest qualification obtainable.

Clinical and Research Interests

• Workforce Preparation : active learning approaches (simulation); peer mentoring; transfer learning; developing clinical reasoning capability; academic literacy; students as partners
• Cardiovascular health
• Resuscitation issues (through committee membership on the Australian Resuscitation Council, Australian College of Critical Care Nurses, Advanced Life Support Committee).

Project Highlights 2021 Tutticci, N., Johnston, S., Gillan, P., Delaney, L., Currie, J., Theobald, K. & Ramsbotham, J. Improving undergraduate nurses’ knowledge and skill transfer using Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice simulation: A pilot study (Rosemary Bryant Foundation grant) 2020-2021 Fox, R., Theobald, K., Burridge, C., Fox, A., Thomson, B. Industry Partnership Project (InsPIRE): Industry Academic Integration in Health-Cancer Care (OCNOMO funded) 2020-2021  Ramsbotham, J., Donovan, H., Johnson, R., Theobald, K. QUT Nursing COMPASS peer support for academic skills. (no specific funding) 2018 - 2019: Tutticci, N., Theobald, K., Ramsbotham, J. & Johnson, S. CRiticAL - Clinical Reasoning and Simulation: The Passive Observer becomes Active Learner. Sigma/Chamberlain College of Nursing Education Research Grant (USA funding) 2018: Tutticci, N.,Theobald, K., Ramsbotham, J. & Johnson, S.  QUT - CRiticAL – Clinical Reasoning and simulation: the passive observer becomes Active Learner(Phase one) (own funds) 2018: Curtin University -  Learning and Teaching Innovation Grant (2018) Kelly, M (Project Lead)., Slatyer, S., Maclean, S., Tallon, M., Ngune, I., Theobald, K.,(QUT Lead) Tutticci, N., Ramsbotham, J., Johnson, S. (Curtin Uni funded) 2015 - 2017: (Co-Leads) Karen Theobald & Alexandra McCarthy, Fiona Coyer, Ramon Shaban, Amanda Henderson, Robyn Fox, Bernadette Thomson. Academic-industry integration in health: enhancing postgraduate professional learning. CAT 1 - Australian Government Competitive OLT Seed Research Grant. 2015 - 2016: Barnard, A, Tippett, V, Theobald, K, Rider, T, Harvey, T, Malouf, N. Embedding peer review of teaching in practice disciplines: development of a multi-disciplinary approach to off-campus contexts. QUT Learning and Teaching Grant Scheme funding. 2012 – 2014: Theobald, K., Foster, E., Windsor, C. & Wheeler, M. Promoting active learning through technologies: Redesigning the tutorial learning environment (Principal investigator),   QUT Learning and Teaching Grant Scheme funding. 2011 -2012: Scoping the prevalence and determinants of cardiotoxicities following cancer treatment, IHBI Collaborative Seed Grant Scheme/IHBI MCR, QUT. 2008 – 2009: Exploring the needs, issues and concerns of Graduate entry students in the Bachelor Nursing program, School of Nursing Small Grant Scheme, Teaching and Learning Development. 1997: Development of an integrated self-paced learning package to promote quality on-campus clinical education for pre-registration nursing students. Educational Grant from QUT Learning and Teaching Grant Scheme. Industry Research Activities 2007 – 2009: Vascular access and cardiac complications after PTCA, using descriptive data from a hospital database. St Andrews Memorial Hospital, Brisbane. 1998: Development of an ALS Distance Education Program. ALS, Working Party – Educational Grant, CACCN. 1995: “Evaluating the quality and effectiveness of selected models of pre-registration clinical education formats.” Educational grant, National Priority Reserve Fund (teaching) project. 1995: “A comparison of the efficacy of curriculum models in postgraduate specialty nursing education with respect to established performance indicators.” Educational grant, National Priority Reserve Fund (teaching) project.