Dr Deryn Thompson

I am a registered nurse with over 30 years clinical experience in allergy nursing,15 years in eczema (atopic dermatitis) nursing and helping people to master their fundamental skincare through effective education and with the University of South Australia since 2005. I still work in clinical practice in allergy and eczema management. The key to effective patient/family education by Health Professionals (HPs) must facillitate peopel to think, reason and problem solve, but this process is rarely explained in HP literature. My PhD explored and mapped the cognitive Learning Principles nurses use in parent education and those Learning Principles parents found essential to confidence building and effective learning, to master their children's care. Findings showed nurses' practice and parents needs aligned with the Dimensions of Learning Framework (Marzano et al. 1997), used in educational research for 30 years. The Dimensions fo Learning (DoL) framework guides teachers to help students to become critical thinkers who can use reason and problem-solve. In healthcare this is the goal of HPs as they partner with people to manage their chronic conditions. Allergies and eczema are two chronic conditions affecting Australians (4.1 million for allergy and 3 million for eczema). 

The five DoL domains are 1) attutude and perceptions; 2) acquiring and integrating knowledge; 3) extending and refining the knowledge; 4) applying the knowledge and 5) habits of mind. Health professionals are the key to this effective learning process within patient/family education, what ever the chronic condition. These domains help describe a learning process whereby people can be guided to transform information into usable knowledge. Nurses play a pivital role in management of these two chronic conditions.Providing patients/families with information alone is of minimal value for their skill development, unless the HPs providing it, facilitate the information-knowledge transformation process.

I coorditate and teach the Professional Certificate in Allergy Nursing, a 10 week online short course, enabling nurses to gain the knowledge and skills in caring for people who have allergies using evidence-based best practice recommendations of the nurses' country of practice. Successful graduants develop skills in critical awareness to evaluate information, resources and research surrounding allergic conditions and eczema. Not all online allergy or eczema information is robust!

I am a member of the Rosemary Bryant Research Foundation group. I am also a member of multiple professional organisations: Australian College of Nursing, Australian Dermatology Nurses Association (ADNA), associate nurse member of the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA); Australian College of Children's and Young People's Nursing (ACCYPN), Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), Eczema Support Australia, British Dermatology Nurses Association (BDNG), Food Allergy Nurses' Awarenes Group (FANI, USA). I am also the ADNA representative on the Coalition of National Nursing and Midwifery Organisations (CoNNMO).

Australian Nurses' Federation, Associate member Australasian Society of Clinical Immunologists and Allergists, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA Branch, Australian Dermatology Nurses Association Joint state representative 2013-4, Newsletter editor 2016- 2021,CoNMo representative 2022- current; Member British Dermatology Nurses Group, UK,The Golden Key International Honour Society Membership for academic excellence Flinders University Chapter 2005,The Golden Key International Honour Society Membership for academic excellence Flinders University & University of South Australia Chapters, Australian College of Children & Young Peoples Nurses.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Masters of Nursing University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Nursing The Flinders University of South Australia