About Us

Background

I am a Research Fellow in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research and the Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University. My research focus includes collaboration and shared decision-making, person-centred healthcare, innovation and knowledge translation, and professional leadership in nursing and midwifery practice. I also have over 30 years of experience in healthcare, working as both a Registered Nurse and a Registered Midwife in a variety of clinical, education, and leadership roles in the UK and Australia.

 

Research Focus

The aim of my PhD study ‘Labouring Together: Collaborative Alliances in Maternity Care in Victoria, Australia’ was to explore how elements hypothesised to influence the effectiveness of collaboration are reflected in perceptions and experiences of clinicians and childbearing women in Victoria, Australia, and to identify conditions that assist clinicians and women to make decisions collaboratively to support positive maternity outcomes.

Entrenched organisational and policy-level barriers to collaborative decision-making were identified; and whilst participants agreed that families should have autonomy over decisions pertaining to their health, most identified barriers at multiple levels to achieving this ideal.

 

 Awards & Achievements

• 2021 Institute for Health Transformation- Seed Funding Grant (co-investigator) ($9500) ‘Health literacy and engagement in health services among expectant and new fathers: a cross sectional study’.
• 2021 HESTA Award for Research Scholarship Awarded to a domestic PhD candidate for outstanding research scholarship ($1000 and certificate) ‘Labouring together: Collaborative Alliances in Maternity Care in Victoria, Australia’.
• 2021 Deakin University Faculty of Health HDR Publication Award ($3000) ‘Labouring together: Collaborative Alliances in Maternity Care in Victoria, Australia’.
• 2015 Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Vic Branch) Research Grant ($5000) ‘Labouring Together: Collaborative Alliances in Maternity Care in Victoria, Australia’.
• 2013 Health Roundtable Innovation Award “The Eastern Health Maternity Observation and Response Chart”.                                                                          
• 2011 Deakin University / Health Super Leadership in Nursing and Midwifery Award (major award winner) ($20,000) “For outstanding leadership and commitment to the profession”.

Feature Publications

• Watkins V, Nagle, C, Yates K, McAuliffe M, Brown L, Byrne M & Waters A. (2023). The role and scope of contemporary midwifery practice in Australia: A scoping review of the literature. Women and Birth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2022.12.001
• Squires, J.E.; Graham, I.D.; Santos, W.J.; Hutchinson, A.M.; the ICON Team (Backman, C.; Bergström, A.; Brehaut, J.; Brouwers, M.; Burton, C.; Candido, L.K.; Cassidy, C.; Chalmers, C.; Chapman, A.; Colquhoun, H.; Curran, J.; Demery Varin, M.; Doering, P.; Elliott Rose, A.; Fairclough, L.; Francis, J.; Godfrey, C.; Greenough, M.; Grimshaw, J.M.; Grinspun, D.; Harvey, G.; Hillmer, M.; Ivers, N.; Lavis, J.; Li, S.; Michie, S.; Miller, W.; Noseworthy, T.; Rader, T.; Robson, M.; Rycroft-Malone, J.; Stacey, D.; Straus, S.; Tricco, A.C.; Wallin, L.; Watkins, V.) (2023). The Implementation in CONtext (ICON) Framework: A meta-framework of context domains, attributes, and features. BMC Health Research Policy and Systems. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-023-01028-z
• Santos, WJ, Hutchinson, A, Rader, T, Graham, ID, Watkins, V, Candido, LK, Greenough, M, Squires, JE. (2022). Insights from using a search filter and conducting citation searches to locate psychometric articles of tools used to measure context attributes. BMC Research Notes. 16:34 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-023-06294-2
• Watkins, V., Nagle, C., Kent, B., Street, M., & Hutchinson, A. M. (2022). Labouring Together: Women's experiences of “Getting the care that I want and need” in maternity care. Midwifery, 113, 103420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2022.103420
• Wynter K, Deegan L, Watkins V, Rasmussen B, Macdonald J. (2021). Midwives’ experiences of father participation in maternity care at a large metropolitan hospital in Melbourne. Midwifery, 2021, 101, 103046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2021.103046

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