Tanya Farrell, our Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery, has been appointed an Adjunct Professor at La Trobe University.
Announcing the appointment, the Women’s CEO Dr Sue Matthews said it was an acknowledgement of Tanya's ongoing commitment to improving the care of mothers and babies, and of her leadership in the field of midwifery.
The appointment also speaks to Tanya's long term work in partnership with the School of Nursing and Midwifery and the Judith Lumley Centre (formerly Mother and Child Health Research) at La Trobe University. The partnership between the Women's and La Trobe provides a strong base for improving health outcomes for mothers and babies through generating new evidence, translating evidence into clinical practice, strengthening models of care and developing the knowledge and skills of our clinicians.
Tanya was Chief Investigator with Assoc Prof McLachlan and Prof Della Forster on the world's largest, and Australia's first, randomised controlled trial (RCT) of caseload midwifery (COSMOS). The intervention had direct benefit for women and midwives and the findings influenced maternity care in Australia and internationally.
Tanya has played a key role and has contributed to a number of other La Trobe studies in the areas of postnatal care, breastfeeding, and midwifery education and has co-authored many of the resulting publications. As the Director of Maternity Services and now Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery at the Women's, Tanya has facilitated clinical placements for substantial numbers of La Trobe midwifery postgraduate students per year since 1992 and undergraduate students since 2001.
La Trobe University students make up the largest group of student midwives at the Women's (currently 120 undergraduate and 12 postgraduate student placements per year). Tanya has also been instrumental in facilitating the employment of senior midwifery clinicians in student supervision and education. Tanya was instrumental in supporting and facilitating the joint appointment of Prof Della Forster in her role as Professor of Midwifery and Maternity Services Research, a joint appointment between the Women's and La Trobe.
This appointment to Adjunct Professor not only recognises Tanya's contributions to La Trobe to date, but also helps strengthen the continued partnership in research and education which has been so effective.