Dr Rachel Feeney
![Profile image of Dr Rachel Feeney](https://www.qut.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0020/1058501/placeholder-profile-image.png)
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Law
Biography
Rachel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and member of the End of Life Research Program within the Australian Centre for Health Law Research. She previously worked as a speech pathologist in palliative and end-of-life care, intensive care, oncology and paediatrics. Rachel's early research focused on speech pathology and allied health topics, and in 2016 she was awarded a PhD on speech pathology and epidemiology. She has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods.Since joining QUT in 2015, Rachel's research has focused on end-of-life decision-making, including law, policy and clinical practice. She has a particular interest in voluntary assisted dying and the specific legal issues relevant to allied health professionals working in end-of-life care.
Rachel has contributed to the development of training for speech pathologists and allied health professionals on end-of-life law and voluntary assisted dying. She is employed on End of Life Law for Clinicians, a training program for clinicians about end of life law, funded by the Commonwealth Government. She was previously engaged as a clinical consultant for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Training Education Module for Healthcare Workers in Queensland.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Personal details
Positions
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Faculty of Business & Law,
School of Law
Keywords
End of life decision-making, Advance care planning, Advance directives and consent to medical treatment, Voluntary assisted dying, ACHLR
Research field
Public health, Other law and legal studies, Clinical sciences
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Queensland)
- BSpPath (University of Queensland)
Professional memberships and associations
- Member – Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology
- Member – Speech Pathology Australia
- Member – Australian Allied Health in Palliative Care
- Member – Australian Association of Gerontology
Publications
- Feeney, R., Willmott, L., Wilson, J. & White, B. (2024). Legal issues in end-of-life care for speech-language pathologists and social workers: A scoping review. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 26(2), 244–256. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/242514
- Feeney, R., Willmott, L., Neller, P., Then, S., Yates, P. & White, B. (2023). Online modules to improve health professionals' end-of-life law knowledge and confidence: a pre-post survey study. BMC Palliative Care, 22(1). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/244501
- Willmott, L., Feeney, R., Del Villar, K., Yates, P. & White, B. (2023). Voluntary assisted dying: A discussion of key legal issues for Australian nurses. Collegian, 30(5), 701–707. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/242704
- Willmott, L., White, B., Feeney, R., Chambaere, K., Yates, P., Mitchell, G. & Piper, D. (2022). Collecting data on end-of-life decision-making: Questionnaire translation, adaptation and validity assessment. Progress in Palliative Care, 30(2), 83–93. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/210841
- White, B., Willmott, L., Feeney, R., Neller, P., Then, S., Bryant, J., Waller, A. & Yates, P. (2021). Limitations in health professionals' knowledge of end-of-life law: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/211066
- Tilse, C., Willmott, L., Wilson, J., Feeney, R. & White, B. (2021). Operationalizing legal rights in end-of-life decision-making: A qualitative study. Palliative Medicine, 35(10), 1889–1896. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/213016
- Willmott, L., White, B., Feeney, R., Tilse, C., Wilson, J. & Aitken, J. (2021). Role of Law in End-of-Life Decision-Making: Perspectives of Patients, Substitute Decision-Makers and Families. Journal of Law and Medicine, 28(3), 813–830. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212905
- Feeney, R., White, B., Willmott, L. & Wilson, J. (2021). Legal issues in palliative and end-of-life care for selected allied health professionals: A scoping review. Presented at: Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law (AABHL) Conference 2021. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/234927
- Feeney, R., Neller, P., White, B., Willmott, L., Yates, P. & Then, S. (2021). Training to support end of life issues in clinical practice. Speak Out, 31–33. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212991
- White, B., Willmott, L., Tilse, C., Wilson, J., Ferguson, M., Aitken, J., Dunn, J., Lawson, D., Pearce, A. & Feeney, R. (2019). Prevalence of advance care directives in the community: A telephone survey of three Australian States. Internal Medicine Journal, 49(10), 1261–1267. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/126743
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Rachel, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Supervision
Current supervisions
- A longitudinal study of medial practitioners' experiences following the commencement of Voluntary Assisted Dying in Queensland
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Ben White, Professor Lindy Willmott