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Professor Josephine Thomas
Clinical Dean, NALHN
Adelaide Medical School
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Professor Jo (Josephine) Thomas is a Specialist General Physician, Clinical Pharmacologist and Educator. She is the Clinical Dean for Adelaide Medical School at Northern Adelaide Local Health Network. She has a long term involvement in education and training, with strong connections across SA and nationally. Her PhD in Medical Education completed in 2020, focused on interprofessional education research, She remains involved in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate medicine and pharmacy and with a strong interest in interprofessional learning. Jo has taught coordinated and developed a number of courses in the MBBS at The University of Adelaide, including development and coordination of the Transition to internship course and leading development of the B. Med Studies/ MD program framework. Jo graduated from Flinders University South Australia in 1990 and worked in General Practice in Sydney and Adelaide, before pursuing Physician Training. She is a passionate clinician educator with a commitment to high-quality teaching, training, and clinical service delivery.
I hold a PhD in Medical Education, which I completed in 2020 in the School of Psychology. My thesis focuses on research, which examines how prelicensure pharmacy and medicine students perceive interprofessional learning. I have broad interests in research in Interprofessional learning and Medical Education. I use predominantly qualitative methods (as well as quantitative and mixed methods).
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2024 - ongoing Clinical Dean University of Adelaide 2019 - ongoing Clinical Associate Professor University of Adelaide 2019 - ongoing Director Physician Education SA Health 2018 - 2019 Academic Lead for development of the Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine program Unversity of Adelaide 2017 - 2018 MBBS Program Coordinator Adelaide Medical School 2010 - 2019 Clinical Studies Advisor- Senior Lecturer in Clinical Education/Medicine University of Adelaide 2009 - 2014 Deputy Director of Clinical training Royal Adelaide Hospital 2006 - ongoing Staff Specialist in General Medicine Royal Adelaide Hospital -
Awards and Achievements
Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount 2018 Recognition Medicine Writing Group Chair, AMC Clinical Assessment Panel Australian Medical Council Australia - 2017 Fellowship Awarded fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators 2017 Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators 2017 Australia - 2016 Award Mark Bonnin Teaching Award University of Adelaide Australia - 2016 Award Executive Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (level C) University of Adelaide Australia - 2015 Teaching Award Mark Bonnin Teaching award University of Adelaide Australia - 2013 Teaching Award Mark Bonnin Award University of Adelaide Australia - 2012 Teaching Award Mark Bonnin Award University of Adelaide Australia - 2011 Teaching Award Professor Derek Frewin AO Citation University of Adelaide Australia - 2010 Teaching Award Professor Derek Frewin AO Citation for Clinical Teaching University of Adelaide Australia - -
Language Competencies
Language Competency English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2020 University of Adelaide Australia PhD 1983 - 1990 Flinders University, Adelaide Australia B.M. B.S. -
Postgraduate Training
Date Title Institution Country 2005 - 2007 Fellowship Royal Australasian College Physicians (Clinical Pharmacology) Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Sydney Australia 2000 - 2005 Fellowship Royal Australasian College Physicians (General Medicine) Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Sydney Australia 1992 - 1997 Fellowship Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, East Melbourne Australia -
Research Interests
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Journals
Year Citation 2024 Grosse, A., & Thomas, J. (2024). ‘Selection into training will always be an inexact process’: A survey of Directors of Physician Education on selection into Basic Physician Training in Australia and New Zealand. Internal Medicine Journal, 54(1), 74-85.
Scopus1 WoS12024 Emerson, P., Flabouris, A., Thomas, J., Fernando, J., Senthuran, S., Knowles, S., . . . Sundararajan, K. (2024). Intensive care utilisation after elective surgery in Australia and New Zealand: A point prevalence study. Critical Care and Resuscitation, 26(1), 1-7.
2024 Stretton, B., Montagu, A., Kunnel, A., Louise, J., Behrendt, N., Kovoor, J., . . . Davies, E. (2024). Perceived and actual value of Student-led Objective Structured Clinical Examinations. Clinical Teacher, 21(4), 12 pages.
2024 Arnold, M., Tan, S., Pakos, T., Stretton, B., Kovoor, J., Gupta, A., . . . Bacchi, S. (2024). Evidence-Based Crossword Puzzles for Health Professions Education: A Systematic Review. Medical Science Educator, 7 pages.
Scopus12023 Stretton, B., Bacchi, S., & Thomas, J. (2023). A scoping review of patient-led teaching of health professions students. Internal Medicine Journal, 53(4), 629-634.
Scopus12023 Chan, J. E. Z., Hakendorf, P., & Thomas, J. S. (2023). Key aspects of teaching that affect perceived preparedness of medical students for transition to work: insights from the COVID-19 pandemic. Internal Medicine Journal, 53(8), 1321-1331.
Scopus12023 Nadkarni, A., Costa-Pinto, R., Hensman, T., Harman, E. V., Yanase, F., Lister, B. G., . . . Thomas, J. S. (2023). Evaluating an inquiry-based learning program. Advances in Physiology Education, 47(4), 930-939.
Scopus1 Europe PMC12023 Emerson, P., Flabouris, A., Thomas, J., Fernando, J., Senthuran, S., & Sundararajan, K. (2023). Intensive care utilisation after elective surgery in Australia and New Zealand: getting the balance right. Australian Health Review, 47(6), 718-720.
2023 Donnelly, F., Gordon, S., Lawn, S., Schoo, A., Thomas, J., & White, K. (2023). Guarded reciprocity: A study of managers expectations of graduates interprofessional practice (IPP) skills and knowledge. Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice, 31, 100620.
Scopus12022 Lam, A., Lam, L., Blacketer, C., Parnis, R., Franke, K., Wagner, M., . . . Bacchi, S. (2022). Professionalism and clinical short answer question marking with machine learning. Internal Medicine Journal, 52(7), 1268-1271.
Scopus2 WoS12021 Thomas, J. S., & Marker, J. (2021). Survivors as teachers – giving patients a voice. The Clinical Teacher, 18(4), 381-383.
Scopus1 WoS12021 Thomas, J., Kumar, K., & Chur-Hansen, A. (2021). How pharmacy and medicine students experience the power differential between professions: "Even if the pharmacist knows better, the doctor's decision goes".. PloS one, 16(8), 1-12.
Scopus11 WoS5 Europe PMC32021 Blacketer, C., Parnis, R., B Franke, K., Wagner, M., Wang, D., Tan, Y., . . . Bacchi, S. (2021). Medical student knowledge and critical appraisal of machine learning: a multicentre international cross-sectional study.. Intern Med J, 51(9), 1539-1542.
Scopus7 WoS4 Europe PMC52020 Thomas, J. S., Boylan, A., & Richards, B. (2020). Challenging mutual mistrust: medico-legal interprofessional learning. Medical Teacher, 54(5), 476-477.
2020 Brown, Z. R., Thomas, J. S., & Limaye, V. (2020). A case of haemorrhagic myositis with concurrent anti-Ro52 and anti-NXP-2 antibodies treated with plasmapheresis. Rheumatology (Oxford, England), 59(3), 682-684.
Scopus6 WoS2 Europe PMC52019 Thomas, J., Kumar, K., & Chur-Hansen, A. (2019). Discussion Paper: Improving the participation of students in health professional education research. Focus on Health Professional Education, 20(3), 84-96.
WoS22019 Dignam, C., Thomas, J., Brown, M., & Thompson, C. H. (2019). The impact of language on the interpretation of resuscitation clinical care plans by doctors. A mixed methods study.. PloS one, 14(11), e0225338.
Scopus6 WoS5 Europe PMC42018 Thomas, J. (2018). The clinician educator as qualitative researcher. Clinical Teacher, 16(6), 646-648.
WoS12018 Thomas, J. S., Kumar, K., & Chur-Hansen, A. (2018). What does learning together mean for pharmacy and medicine students: is it really about from and with?. MedEdPublish, 7(2), 42-1-42-10.
Europe PMC12018 Thomas, J. S., & Eastley, T. A. (2018). The educational challenge of End‐of‐Life conversations for our junior doctors. Archives of Medicine and Health Sciences, 6(1), 152-156.
2017 Fazal, M., Andrews, J., Thomas, J., & Saffouri, E. (2017). Inpatient iron deficiency detection and management: how do general physicians and gastroenterologists perform in a tertiary care hospital?. Internal Medicine Journal, 47(8), 928-932.
Scopus1 WoS2 Europe PMC12017 Thomas, J., Gilbert, T., & Thompson, C. (2017). Preparing the future workforce for healthcare in Australia. Future Hospital Journal, 4(1), 67-71.
Europe PMC32016 Shakib, S., Dundon, B., Maddison, J., Thomas, J., Stanners, M., Caughey, G., & Clark, R. (2016). Effect of a multidisciplinary outpatient model of care on health outcomes in older patients with multimorbidity: a retrospective case control study. PLoS ONE, 11(8), e0161382-1-e0161382-11.
Scopus21 WoS17 Europe PMC122015 Thomas, J., Gillard, D., Khor, M., Hakendorf, P., & Thompson, C. (2015). A comparison of educational interventions to improve prescribing by junior doctors. QJM: an international journal of medicine, 108(5), 369-377.
Scopus12 WoS10 Europe PMC72014 Calabretto, J., Thomas, J., Rossi, S., & Beilby, J. (2014). Medical student experiences of a smartphone-delivered drug information resource. Electronic Journal of Health Informatics, 8(2), 1-11.
WoS12014 Thomas, J., Koo, M., Shakib, S., Wu, J., & Khanal, S. (2014). Impact of a compulsory final year medical student curriculum on junior doctor prescribing. Internal Medicine Journal, 44(2), 156-160.
Scopus11 WoS8 Europe PMC62013 Thomas, J., & Crowhurst, T. (2013). Exertional heat stroke, rhabdomyolysis and susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia. Internal Medicine Journal, 43(9), 1035-1038.
Scopus21 WoS18 Europe PMC142013 Pirbhai, A., Kahawita, S., Davis, G., Dodd, T., Thomas, J., & Selvakumar, D. (2013). Hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis to sphenoid wing. Orbit, 32(2), 132-133.
Scopus6 WoS5 Europe PMC42012 Toh, D. J., Thompson, C. H., Thomas, J. S., & Faunt, J. (2012). Emergency department overcrowding and mortality after the introduction of the 4-hour rule in Western Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, 196(8), 499-500.
Scopus6 WoS3 Europe PMC52012 Barton, L., Futtermenger, J., Gaddi, Y., Kang, A., Rivers, J., Spriggs, D., . . . Thomas, J. (2012). Simple prescribing errors and allergy documentation in medical hospital admissions in Australia and New Zealand. Clinical Medicine, 12(2), 119-123.
Scopus24 WoS21 Europe PMC122012 Toh, D., Thompson, C., Thomas, J., & Faunt, J. (2012). Emergency department overcrowding and mortality after the introduction of the 4-hour rule in Western Australia.. The Medical journal of Australia, 196(8).
Scopus72010 Thomas, J., & Thompson, C. (2010). Omitting family history from the hospital admission. Medical Journal of Australia, 192(12), 676-677.
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Conference Papers
Year Citation 2022 Nadkarni, A., Costa-Pinto, R., Hensman, T., Harman, E., Yanase, F., Lister, B., . . . Thomas, J. (2022). THE INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING PROGRAM - EVALUATION OF A NATIONAL ONLINE INTENSIVE CARE TEACHING CURRICULUM. In AUSTRALIAN CRITICAL CARE Vol. 35 (pp. S3). ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC.
2019 Donnelly, F., Gordon, S., White, K., Lawn, S., Schoo, A., & Thomas, J. (2019). What are the understandings of interprofessional practice (IPP) by key stakeholders in the acute care sector?. In Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (2019), ANZAHPE 2019 Conference, 1-4 July, 2019, Canberra, Australia.. online: ANZAHPE. 2018 Nairn, J. M., & Thomas, J. (2018). Creating Effective Small Group Learning. In Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (2018), ANZAHPE 2018 Conference, 1-4 July, 2018, Hobart, Australia. Hobart. 2017 Thomas, J. (2017). My transition – Navigating the journey from clinician to qualitative researcher and some pit stops in between. In ANZAHPE. Adelaide. 2016 Thomas, J. (2016). Interprofessional learning and development of professional identity. In ANZAHPE. Perth. -
Conference Items
Year Citation 2018 Thomas, J., Kumar, K., & Chur-Hansen, A. (2018). Is it really about, from and with?. Poster session presented at the meeting of Abstracts of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE 2018). Tasmania: ANZAHPE. 2018 Thomas, J. (2018). Sustaining interprofessionality, from classroom to workplace and beyond. Poster session presented at the meeting of Abstracts of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE 2018). Tasmania: ANZAHPE. 2013 Thomas, J. S., Vitry, A., & Marker, J. (2013). STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF A CONSUMER LED DISCUSSION GROUP FORMAT TO IMPROVE AWARENESS OF THE PATIENT PERSPECTIVE. Poster session presented at the meeting of ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY. WILEY-BLACKWELL.
As an active clinician I am passionate about the practice of medicine and seek to inspire students to practice to the best of their ability. As a clinical educator I seek to utilise effective learning techniques and to maximise experiential learning. I believe in providing students with a range of learning opportunities and styles to cater for the different learning styles of a diversity of learners. Therefore, I like to provide a mixture of online modules, face-to-face tutorials, didactic sessions and practical sessions in order to facilitate the learning of all students.
Developing a lifelong practice of self-directed learning is a requirement to maintain currency for practice in medicine. Therefore, I believe a graded approach to self-reliance and increasing responsibility is useful. It is vital to treat students as adult learners. In particular, acknowledging prior learning and transferable skills is important in reinforcing the value of students’ opinions, encouraging independence and the facilitating development of professional identity. This is most important in the later years of the medical program, where students have a range of relevant experiences to draw on from the clinical learning environment and their life experience.
Clinical Education requires a safe environment for learning, which minimises any harm to patients but allows learners to develop skills. Building a culture of safety involves: opportunities for simulation and practice before undertaking procedures on patients; empowering students to speak up when they are uncertain or have concerns about safety; providing clear guidance for scope of practice; utilising all team members in clinical learning. My commitment to interprofessional learning and interprofessional practice is part of this philosophy.
I see reflection as a valuable tool to maximise learning, it is particularly beneficial where there has been some challenge to the student’s values and attitudes in the learning activity. It can facilitate resolution of this dissonance, facilitate deeper levels of learning, and helps to build resilience (which is valuable for developing a robust health professional). I incorporate reflection where appropriate to enhance learning activities, either as a formative activity (eg debrief after clinical encounters) or as a more formal assignment. I am explicit with students about the value of reflection, in order to promote this as a tool for professional life.
I believe my enthusiasm for clinical medicine and diagnosis is a catalyst for students to develop their own interest in learning. My willingness to debate diagnoses and discuss clinical cases stimulates student interest in further learning. I take care to point students toward additional resources, which are of high quality, so that their further reading is valuable and time efficient.
I developed and coordinated the Transition to internship course in the final year of the MBBS, for 10 years. The course aims to prepare students for work as an intern. In the 2017 National survey of Intern work readiness the University of Adelaide performed very well: The survey asked questions with regard to 45 skills in eight skill groups. University of Adelaide medical school achieved an overall perceived preparedness score of 4.22 (which was significantly above the national average of 3.8).
One of the innovative teaching activities I have introduced in year 3 clinical practice course is the “cancer voices” workshop. This is a collaboration with Cancer voices SA and involves people affected by a cancer diagnosis (patients and carers) sharing their story with a small group of students. The aim is to increase student awareness of the impact of a cancer diagnosis; enable them to appreciate a patient perspective and potentially adopt changes in practice as a result of their learning. Students complete a guided reflection to enhance their learning from the experience.
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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2021 Co-Supervisor Intensive Care Utilisation After Elective Surgical Procedures in Australia and New Zealand. Master of Clinical Science Master Part Time Dr Philip Emerson
Connect With Me
External Profiles