Frances Barraclough

Lecturer for the Faculty of Medicine and Health (FMH) at the University Centre for Rural Health (UCRH)

Biography

As a lecturer for the Faculty of Medicine and Health (FMH) located at the University Centre for Rural Health (UCRH), I lead the development and implementation of an interprofessional education program (IPL) supporting undergraduate and postgraduate students from up to 15 Australian universities.

My specialism relates to integrated care and my outputs are focused on influencing health care policy, practice and curriculum design.

My educational philosophy is based on enabling our current and future health and social care workforce to manage health and care (rather than disease and cure) and to work in teams across disciplines and service providers within both health and social care settings. This philosophy involves a different set of knowledge, skills and attitudes to those with which our health workforce has traditionally been equipped.

My role includes working with universities, curriculum developers, national and international organisations to implement similar programs and approaches to health workforce development. I am currently completing a PhD developing a global framework and key competencies for education and training in this area.

My strengths are leadership in initiating new and innovative placement models, interprofessional learning, workforce development, integrated care, mentoring others and building strong partnerships with a wide range of community-based organisations, health and social care providers, other UCRHs and universities from across Australia.

I contribute to university-wide curriculums, such as the USYD ‘Interprofessional Learning Strategy’ and the FMH Primary Health Care Network. In addition, I mentor and support senior academics, rural clinicians, clinical educators and industry partners to adopt an interprofessional and primary health care approach to their curriculum.

I have 30 years of experience living and working in rural settings as a nurse, educator and researcher.