Alfred Deakin Professor Mari Botti AM, Chair in Nursing in the Deakin-Epworth partnership, has been made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2016 Australia Day honours.
The award has recognised Professor Botti’s significant service to nursing and medical education, as an academic and author, and to pain management research.
Professor Maxine Duke, Director of Deakin’s Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research, and Head, School of Nursing and Midwifery, congratulated Professor Botti on receiving this honour.
“Her work has directly translated into better outcomes for patients in the Australian health system and has international reach.”
Professor Botti’s research interests cross a number of clinical practice domains, with a particular focus on pain management, quality and safety of care delivery, patient engagement and clinical outcomes in acute care settings.
She has worked closely with clinicians and nursing staff, forming a partnership with Alfred Health when she joined Deakin in 1997 and becoming Chair at Epworth Healthcare in 2004 to form the Deakin Epworth Centre for Clinical Nursing Research.
This partnership has facilitated industry-based research in several health domains, including quality and patient safety.
Professor Botti explained that, throughout her career, she has been particularly concerned with improving pain management – and appropriate training for medical staff should ensure that pain is kept tolerable for most patients.
“We are trying to make sure patients receive the best possible pain management in acute care all the time,” she said.
“The Australian Commission for Quality and Safety developed national standards in 2011. Now, researchers are trying to find the best ways to ensure these standards are met.
“My focus has been to look at patients’ perceptions of their experience; to see if they have had good pain relief; and see if they have been free from adverse events.
“We are using an ‘implementation science perspective’ to support clinicians to provide evidence-based pain management. This involves developing appropriate learning modules – and considering whether the structures and processes of care need to be modified.
“We have made good progress and raised awareness amongst the profession, but we still have some way to go. Pain management has been a long-standing problem that needs a multi-dimensional solution, through issues such as communication, finding ways to help patients participate in their own care, improving the way clinicians deliver care, and ensuring that policies and practices support these approaches.”
