School of Medical and Health Sciences

Ms Abigail Lewis

Abigail is a Senior Lecturer in the University Department of Rural Health South West (UDRH SW) based in Bunbury. The aim of the UDRH SW is to build the rural health workforce in the South West, mainly by supporting more students to attend placements here.

Current Teaching

I develop and teach the curriculum for students attending placements in the South West. This includes an online module and fortnightly tutorials called Harvest sessions. I also run supervision workshops to support supervisors and new graduate support groups.

Background

Abigail Lewis is a non-Indigenous white woman born in a rural area of the UK of mostly Scottish ancestry. She came to Western Australia as a settler migrant in 1996 and has lived on the beautiful Noongar country for thirty years. Language and communication are very important to her, and she trained and worked as a speech pathologist for many years, specialising in supporting with children with disabilities, especially autism. She moved into academia in 2009 as a placement coordinator in ECU’s Bachelor of Speech Pathology program. Her teaching and research are focused on increasing the confidence and competence of students completing placements or work integrated learning. She is particularly interested in professional identity formation, recently completing her doctorate in this topic. Increasing self-awareness through reflective practice is a key tool from her own learning journey and one she encourages students to use. Recently she moved from Perth to Bunbury to work in ECU’s University Department of Rural Health South West, supporting allied health and nursing students on placement in the South West and their supervisors. The UDRH SW aims to increase the local rural health workforce through supporting quality student placements and increasing locally focused research.

As well as her doctorate she has completed a Masters of Health Science in Developmental Disability and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. She is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist as accredited by Speech Pathology Australia. She is also a HERDSA fellow and was awarded an OLT citation for outstanding contributions to student learning in 2017.

Professional Associations

• Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME)
• Australian and New Zealand Association of Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE)
• Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia (HERDSA)
• South West Health Professionals Network (SWHPN)
• Speech Pathology Australia (SPA)
• West Australian Institute for Educational Research (WAIER)

Awards and Recognition

National and International Awards

• 2022 - JCP SLP 2022 Editor’s Prize awarded for paper Reflections on clinical education by students and new graduates: What can we learn?
• 2015 – Finalist in WA Clinical Supervision Awards Category 3 Innovation in Supervision for the development and evaluation of an ePortfolio and reflective practice across the course and training and evaluation clinical supervisors in the use of reflective supervision
• 2009 – Early Childhood Intervention Australia (ECIA) Excellence award for outstanding contribution to service delivery in Early Intervention in WA

University and National Teaching Awards

• 2017 - OLT Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Development of curricula, resources and services that reflect a command of the field). For the development and implementation of an innovative clinical practicum program in Speech Pathology using reflective practice to optimise the development of students’ clinical skills
• 2015 – HERDSA Fellowship
• 2013 – Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Award 2013 Citation for outstanding contribution to student learning
• 2012 – Executive Dean’s Award in recognition of tireless and enthusiastic work to develop both speech pathology and cross disciplinary initiatives

National and International Research Positions

• 2012 – National Clinical Supervision Fellowship awarded by Health Workforce Australia

Research Areas and Interests

• Professional identity formation in speech pathology students and new graduates
• Clinical education – enhancing students' learning before, during and after placements, including the use of simulation and virtual reality
• Reflective supervision – enhancing the training of clinical educators in reflective supervision
• Implementing quality rural placements
• Supporting new graduates transitioning to rural workplaces