Dr Claudia Virdun

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Senior Research Fellow

Doctor of Philosophy (University of Tech., Sydney)

Claudia has nursed for 24 years and within palliative care for 21 years in either a clinical, academic or policy focused role. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow for the Faculty of Health at the Queensland University of Technology. Clinically, Claudia has worked in large metropolitan tertiary centres (both in Australia and England) and in an Australian rural setting in specialist palliative care nursing roles. Claudia has completed an Honours degree (Nursing), Masters degree (Advancing Professional Health Care Practice) and recently completed her doctoral studies with her thesis title being: Optimising care for People with palliative care needs, and their families, in the Australian hospitaL setting: the OPAL Project. She is now focused on how to drive and support clinicians to innovate and enable optimal care for patients and families who have palliative care needs, irrespective of setting. PUBLICATIONS

  1. Orr, F., Kelly, M., Virdun, C., Power, T., Phillips, A., Gray, J., (2021) The development and evaluation of an integrated virtual patient case study and related online resources for person-centred nursing practice. Nursing Education in Practice. (In Press)
  2. Virdun C, Luckett T, Davidson P & Phillips, J. (2020) Strengthening palliative care in the hospital setting: A co-design study. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. (In Press).
  3. Geia, L., Baird, K., Bail, K., Barclay, L., Bennett, J., Best, O., ... & Bryant AO, R. (2020). A unified call to action from Australian Nursing and Midwifery leaders: ensuring that Black Lives Matter. Contemporary Nurse, 1-20.
  4. Virdun, C., Luckett, T., Davidson, P., Lorenz, K., & Phillips, J. (2020). Hospital patients’ perspectives on what is essential to enable optimal palliative care: a qualitative study. Palliative Medicine, 34(10), 1402-1415.
  5. Australian College of Nursing (ACN). 2020, ‘Establishing a nurse-led palliative care service in Australia: an implementation toolkit —A White Paper by ACN 2020’, ACN, Canberra.
  6. Virdun, C., Luckett, T., Gilmore, I., Brassil, M., Lilian, R., Lorenz, K., & Phillips, J. (2019). Involving consumers with palliative care needs and their families in research: A case study. Collegian, 26(6), 645-650.
  7. Australian College of Nursing (ACN). 2019, ‘Achieving Quality Palliative Care for All: The Essential Role of Nurses—A White Paper by ACN 2019’, ACN, Canberra.
  8. Henderson, A., Vaz, H., & Virdun, C. (2018). Identifying and assessing the needs of carers of patients with palliative care needs: an exploratory study. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 24(10), 503-509.
  9. Phillips, J. L., Virdun, T. Luckett, M. R. Agar, N. Heneka and D. C. Currow (2018). Development of Palliative Care Indicators for Inclusion into the National Cancer Control Indicators Framework: A Report for Cancer Australia Sydney, Australia, IMPACCT, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney
  10. Virdun, C., Luckett, T., Lorenz, K. A., & Phillips, J. (2018). National quality indicators and policies from 15 countries leading in adult end-of-life care: a systematic environmental scan. BMJ supportive & palliative care, 8(2), 145-154.
  11. Power, T., Virdun, C., Gorman, E., Doab, A., Smith, R., Phillips, A., & Gray, J. (2018). Ensuring Indigenous cultural respect in Australian undergraduate nursing students. Higher Education Research & Development, 1-15.
  12. Virdun C., Luckett, T., Lorenz, K., Davidson, P. M., & Phillips, J. (2017). Analyzing Consumer Priorities for Hospital End-of-Life Care Using a Systematic Review to Inform Policy and Practice. SAGE Research Methods Cases.
  13. Virdun, C., Luckett, T., Lorenz, K., Davidson, P. M., & Phillips, J. (2016). Dying in the hospital setting: A meta-synthesis identifying the elements of end-of-life care that patients and their families describe as being important. Palliative Medicine, 31 (7), 587–601.
  14. Power, T., Virdun, C., White, H., Hayes, C., Parker, N., Kelly, M., ... & Cottle, A. (2016). Plastic with personality: Increasing student engagement with manikins. Nurse education today, 38, 126-131.
  15. Virdun, C., Luckett, T., Davidson, P. M., & Phillips, J. (2015). Dying in the hospital setting: A systematic review of quantitative studies identifying the elements of end-of-life care that patients and their families rank as being most important. Palliative medicine, 29(9), 774-796. 
  16. Power, T., Virdun, C., Sherwood, J., Parker, N., Van Balen, J., Gray, J., & Jackson, D. (2016). REM: A collaborative framework for building indigenous cultural competence. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 27(5), 439-446.
  17. Virdun, C., and Phillips, J: Commentary on Jack B, Baldry C, Groves K, Whelan A, Sephton J and Gaunt K (2013) Supporting home care for the dying: an evaluation of healthcare professionals' perspectives of an individually tailored hospice at home service. Journal of Clinical Nursing 22, 2778-2786
  18. Virdun, C., Brown, N., Phillips, J., Luckett, T., Agar, M., Green, A., & Davidson, P. M. (2015). Elements of optimal paediatric palliative care for children and young people: An integrative review using a systematic approach. Collegian, 22(4), 421-431
  19. Luckett, T., Phillips, J., Agar, M., Virdun, C., Green, A., & Davidson, P. M. (2014). Elements of effective palliative care models: a rapid review.BMC health services research, 14(1), 136
  20. Virdun, C, Gray, J, Sherwood, J, Power, T, Phillips, A, Parker, N & Jackson, D (2013), 'Working together to make Indigenous health care curricula everybody's business: A graduate attribute teaching innovation report', Contemporary Nurse, 46(1), 92-99.
  21. Luckett T, Davidson P, Phillips J, Agar M, Giugni (Virdun) C, Green A. Population-based models of care and planning tools in palliative care: A rapid review of the literature. Sydney, Australia: 2012. (A commissioned rapid review for the NSW Ministry of Health)

Book chapters

  1. Phillips J.L, Virdun C, Bhattarai P, & Fraser C. Nursing and Palliative Care. In MacLeod, R. & Van den Block, L. (Eds.), Textbook of Palliative Care, Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_32-2. Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31738-0
  2. DiGiacomo M, Kochovska S, Cahill, P, Virdun C, Phillips J. Family-focused Care, Family-focused Care Span, In: MacLeod R., Van den Block L. (Eds) Textbook of Palliative Care. Springer. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_32-2. Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31738-0

Projects (Chief investigator)

Additional information

Experience

My career has involved significant: clinical care provision; project and policy design and implementation; and academic learning, teaching and research. Throughout all positions held, a strong focus has been maintained on impeccable person-centred assessment and care planning, excellence in care provision, innovation, collaboration and developing and implementing evidence-based care at national and international levels. Working across multiple clinical areas (adult and paediatric), settings (acute, primary and aged care) and locations (Australian metropolitan and rural settings and a large tertiary referral hospital in London) has enabled continual professional development and a strong drive to see excellence in care provision irrespective of location. Specialising in palliative care has developed strength in leadership and collaboration, evident through working in Nurse Consultancy roles for over 8 years before moving to State and National leadership positions to drive large projects and programs focused on innovation, collaboration and wide-scale improvements. A commitment to better understand embedding sustained improvements within complex health systems led to working within academia with two key areas of focus: 1) education provision at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; and 2) research to enhance the evidence base for optimal care. In relation to learning and teaching, a philosophical approach of active learning with well-designed curricula, student enablement and ensuring curricula focused on applicability within the clinical setting has been central. Skills in conducting and independently leading research has been a more recent development with a focus on using mixed method designs to answer complex questions relating to optimal palliative care provision within Australian hospital settings. My commitment to nursing, and palliative care specifically, is well established and widely recognised after decades working in both paid and voluntary roles to support excellence in care.

  • Core skills and attributes: Excellent communication skills; effective leadership and collaboration; attention to detail; commitment to excellence; ability to deconstruct complex issues into solutions for testing/implementation; deep understanding of clinical nursing; strong work ethic and drive to always achieve the best possible outcome; teaching and presentation skills and an ability to work with core computing programs (including online educational and research tools);
  • Leadership qualities: I lead through the lens of transformational leadership, enhancing collaboration and empowering others with all work achieved.