Associate Professor Caroline Bulsara

BA (Hons) (UK), Grad Dip Ed Studies, PhD (Primary Health)

National Postgraduate Research Coordinator

Email: caroline.bulsara@nd.edu.au
Phone: 9433 0217

  • Biography

    She is currently the national postgraduate research coordinator, in the School of Nursing,  Midwifery, Health Sciences. She also has her own research portfolio as an academic with 25 years of extensive qualitative, community participatory and mixed methods expertise. She completed her PhD in the area of cancer patient empowerment at the University of Western Australia in 2008 which included the development of a Patient Empowerment Scale. Although initially intended for cancer patients, the validated scale has been used internationally for diverse fields such as mental health, chronic illness and women’s health. Her areas of research interest include patient empowerment, caregiver quality of life, wellbeing amongst the aging and those from disadvantaged backgrounds along with quality of life for persons living with cognitive and neurological impairment. She has worked in a number of leadership roles both within the universities and externally to build health research capacity most notably within primary health care and non-government organizations. For 3 years (2011-2014) she was the inaugural research centre manager for a large not for profit organisation providing services to those with dementia as well as rehabilitation services for those with acquired brain injury. During that time she was a co-investigator on a $5 million NHMRC national partnership grant investigating cognitive decline through her role. She works with a number of research active groups both within Notre Dame and at other universities primarily in the areas of psycho oncology, cognitive impairment and dementia, ageing and chronic illness. She is an investigator on a number of successful competitive grants in all of the above areas of research.

  • Teaching areas

    She teaches research methods at postgraduate level across a number of schools at University of Notre Dame. Her main area of focus and expertise are:

    • Qualitative research
    • Mixed methods
    • Survey design
    • Evaluative research methods and community participatory research methods

    Her main areas of expertise include survey and evaluative research, questionnaire design, qualitative research methodologies and community participatory research.

  • Research expertise and supervision

    She completed her PhD in the area of cancer patient empowerment at the School of Primary, Aboriginal and Rural Health Care, the University of Western Australia in 2008. Her main areas of expertise include survey and evaluative research, questionnaire design, qualitative research methodologies and community participatory research.

    She has had 12 student completions at masters and doctoral level to date. She currently supervises; PhD and Masters supervision * 11 (nursing; health sciences; physiotherapy; medicine).

  • Book chapters

    • Bulsara, C, Styles, I. Empowering patients: coping with cancer in ‘Advances in Psychology Research’ Volume 48. Nova Publishers US. November 2006.
    • Bulsara, C, Chan, A and Styles, I. Motivating Women with Breast Cancer to achieve empowerment by the use of support strategies in Motivating Health Behaviour. Nova Publishers US. Second quarter.
    • Williams A, Bulsara C, Peterson A. Evidence based non pharmacological therapies for palliative cancer care in Cho, WCS (ed) Evidence based anti-cancer complementary and alternative medicines. Medicine 4. Doi 10.1007/978-94-007- 5833-9_10. Springer Science and Business Media.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    She has over 125 publications to date with some of the more recent publications included here.

    • Saunders R, Crookes K,Seaman K, Ang S, Bulsara C, Bulsara M. Ewens B, Gallagher O, Graham R, Gullick K, Haydon S, Hughes J, Atee M, Nguyen K, O’Connell B, Scaini D, Etherton-Beer C. Effectiveness of nurse-led volunteer support and technology-driven pain assessment in improving the outcomes of hospitalized older adults: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial. BMJ Open2022;12:e059388. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059388
    • Skoss R, Bulsara, C., Brett, T., Radford, J., Heal, C., Gill, G., Hespe, C.M., Vargas-Garcia, C., Li, I.W., Sullivan, D.R., Vickery, A.W. and Pang, J., Participant experiences of intervention to detect and manage familial hypercholestrolaemia in Australian general practice – a qualitative descriptive study. Australia Journal of General Practice.
    • Bulsara, C., Saunders, R., Emery, L., & Etherton-Beer, C. (2021). Reflecting on experiences of care: an exploratory qualitative descriptive study of the perspectives of stroke survivors, families and staff. BMJ open, 11(12), e047559.
    • Seaman K, Sanfilippo F, Bulsara M, Roughead E, Kemp-Casey A, Bulsara C, Watts GF, Preen D. Increased risk of 2-year death in patients who discontinued their use of statins. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. 2021 Apr;26(2):95-105.
    • McGann S, Bulsara C, Farley H. Socio-spatial and quality of life themes in aged care architecture: A qualitative methods protocol. J Adv Nurs. 2020;00:1 https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14497
    • Bhoyroo, R., Chivers, P., Millar, L., Bulsara, C., Piggott, B., Lambert, M., & Codde, J. (2021). Life in a time of COVID: a mixed method study of the changes in lifestyle, mental and psychosocial health during and after lockdown in Western Australians. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1-16.
    • Sutherland G, Bulsara C, Robinson S, Codde J. (2021) Older women's perceptions of the impact of homelessness on their health needs and their ability to access healthcare. Aust NZ J Public Health. 2021; Online; doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.13156.
    • Bjerg Eskildsen N, Ross L, Bulsara C, Malchau Dietz S, Grothe Thomsen T, Groenvold M, Pedersen SS, Rübner Jørgensen C, Johnsen AT. Development and content validation of a questionnaire measuring patient empowerment in cancer follow-up. Quality of Life Research June 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-020-02483-9
    • Taylor K, Chivers P, Bulsara C, Joske D, Bulsara M, Monterosso L. (2019) Care After Lymphoma (CALy) trial: A phase II pilot pragmatic randomised controlled trial of a nurse-led model of survivorship care, European Journal of Oncology Nursing (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2019.03.005.
    • Neylon S, Bulsara C, Hill A-M (2019): Improving Australian Residential Aged Care Facilities: A Review of Minor Refurbishment Elements, Journal of Housing For the Elderly.DOI: 10.1080/02763893.2018.1561591
    • Ho P, Bulsara M, Downs J, Patman S, Bulsara C, Hill A-M. (2019). Incidence and prevalence of falls in adults with intellectual disability living in the community: a systematic review. JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports. Doi: 10.11124/JBISRIR-2017-0003798.
    • Ho, P., Bulsara, C., Patman, S., Bulsara, M., Downs, J., & Hill, A. M. (2018). Investigating falls in adults with intellectual disability living in community settings and their experiences of post-fall care services: protocol for a prospective observational cohort study. BMC geriatrics, 18(1), 171.
    • Morgan DJR, Eng D, Higgs D, Beilin M, Bulsara C, Wong M, Angus L, Waldron N. (2018). Advance-care-planning (ACP) documentation strategies; Goals-of-Care (GOC) as an alternative to Not-for-Resuscitation (NFR) in medical and oncology patients. A pre-and-post controlled study on quantifiable outcomes. Intern Med J. 2018 Jul 24. doi: 10.1111/imj.14048.
    • Ho P, Patman S, Bulsara C, Hill A-M. (2018) Addressing Challenges to Engage People with Intellectual Disability in Research. British Journal of Learning Disabilities. 1-9. DOI:10.1111/bld.12217.
    • Bulsara C, Brett TD, Ranford J, Heal C, Gill G, Hespe C, Vargas-Garcia C, Li IW, Sullivan DR, Vickery AW, Jing Pang, Arnold-Reed DE, Chan DC, Watts GF. (2021) Awareness of familial hypercholesterolaemia among general practitioners in Australian primary care: a qualitative descriptive study. The Australian Journal of General Practice.

  • Conference papers

    • Williams, A.M., Bulsara, C., Bennett, K., Fournier, C., Furzer, B., Gibson, C., Halkett, G., Joske, J., Kirk, D., O’Connor, M., Slatyer, S., & Williams, P. (June, 2021).  Measuring levels of empowerment and distress in patients with a diagnosis of cancer who attend a cancer support centre. Cancer Nurses Society Association Annual Congress.
    • International Psycho Oncology Society (IPOS) virtual international conference 2021 – Bulsara C, Boban S, Codde J, Cohen P. Patient involvement in the development of a patient-reported outcome measure for ovarian cancer.
    • IPOS virtual international conference 2021 – Bulsara C, Williams P, Joske D, Williams A. Caring for the Carer: Empowering Carers through Educational Workshops.
    • ICIN 2021 – Bulsara C, Karla Seaman  & Renée Graham. Nursing and allied health staff perceptions and experiences of a volunteer stroke peer support program: A qualitative study.
    • IAGG  2019 (Taipei, Taiwan) Ho P, Bulsara M, Patman S, Downs D, Bulsara C, Hill AM. Incidence of falls in older community dwelling adults with intellectual disability. 11th International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics Asia/Oceania Regional Congress

  • Professional affiliations

    • The International Psycho Oncology Society (IPOS)
    • The National Cervical Screening Program (guidelines and standards working group)
    • Solaris Cancer Care Centre (clinical guidelines working group)

  • Community engagement

    Her areas of research interest include patient empowerment, caregiver quality of life, wellbeing amongst the ageing and those from disadvantaged backgrounds along with quality of life for persons living with a neurological impairment. She has worked closely over the years with the Carers Association WA, the Health Consumers Council, Cancer Council WA, Headwest and the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment.

    ICCWA World cafe Falls prevention event moderator, October 2014.

    She is strongly committed to the giving a ‘voice to’ and enabling the wellbeing of all community members through research. Recent events:

    • WA Age Friendly Communities Network Forum. Aug 2018. Let’s talk….Engaging Older Adults in Conversations about Falls Prevention Education. Invited speaker.
    • WA Age Friendly Communities Network Forum. September 2017. Carers of persons with younger onset dementia: a social disability framework perspective. Invited speaker.
    • WA Integrated Oncology Group (WACOG) Forum July 2017. The role of empowerment in the wellbeing of cancer patients. Invited speaker.

  • Awards

    • Best paper Australian Journal of Primary Health at the National Primary Health Care Research conference, Sydney, July 2013.