Tahlee Stevenson

My Research

Access to Reproductive Healthcare and Contraception in Australia - ongoing research collaborations and interest. 

Description: Within my role as a research associate for the School of Public Health, I work across a number of smaller scale research activities and reviews, focused on the accessibility of reproductive healthcare and contraceptive care within Australia. Notably, research outputs to date have focused on online access to contraceptives, accessibility of emergency contraceptives within community pharmacy, use of long-acting reversible contraception in Australia throughout the COVID 19 pandemic and teratogenic medications and pregnancy risk. 

Collaborators: Vivienne Moore, Luke Grzeskowiak (Flinders University Reproductive and Perinatal Pharmacoepidemiology Research Group), SAHMRI Womens and Kids, NMHRC Centre of Research Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women. 

Access analysis using National Institute for Healthcare Excellence Guidelines.

Project Timeline: June 2023- June 2024

Location: Pregnancy Advisory Centre, Central Adelaide Local Health Network

Description: Within Australia there are no national abortion care provision guidelines. This leads to substantial variation in service provision and accessibility of services. Additionally, because of limited availability, waiting periods to access care can be quite significant. This can impact on consumer choices and treatment options, resulting in the need for a surgical procedure opposed to medication. Over the 12-month period I will collect basic data about access pathways, time from first contact with the service to appointment, residential proximity to the CALHN catchment and whether and where clients tried to access care with other providers. An access analysis will be conducted using this data to determine the degree to which current practice aligns with the National Institute for Healthcare and Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which are considered to reflect international standards for best practice. 

Research Activities: client survey, guideline comparison and analysis. 

Role: Chief Investigator 

Funding: CALHN EDON Project Research Funding

Collaborators: Brigid Coombe, Suzanne Foot, Janet Kelly 

Cultural Safety in Education - Yalata Kidney Festival Inter-Disciplinary Trip. 

Timeline: August 2023 

Location: University of Adelaide & Yalata Aboriginal Community 

Description: Each year, since 2016, a group of medical students has travelled to the Yalata community for the annual Kidney Health Festival community outreach trip. Led by members of the Adelaide University Rural Health Alliance, the purpose of the trip is to provide an opportunity for students to experience working as a healthcare provider in a very remote location and to partner with the local school to deliver educational activities focusing on healthy living and kidney health for the community members. Over the past few years, the trip has grown to include students from other healthcare disciplines, including nursing, dentistry, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, and in 2023 the AKction research team was invited to co-lead the trip. As a result, we built in a research component and were able to explore the role that these kinds of outreach trips play in cultural safety education for healthcare students and how they can be used to enact clinical guidelines specific to Aboriginal Kidney Care (KHA-CARI). 

Research Activities: student participant survey, critical reflections. 

Collaborators: Adelaide University Rural Health Alliance, Tullawon Health Service, Yalata Anangu School, SA Health - Dialysis Bus.  

Exploring First Nations Nursing Students study journeys; co-creating a culturally safe environment that supports student recruitment and retention. 

Project Timeline: May - December 2023 

Location: Adelaide Nursing School, University of Adelaide

Description: This collaborative research project brought together nursing academics and First Nations student participants. A mixed methods approach was employed, combining student study journey mapping, a staff experience survey and the analysis of quantitative enrolment, discontinuation and course completion data. Analysis of this data allowed us to identify themes and trends, which were shared with student participants in a collaborative focus group setting. Recommendations for improvement were co-created in a process led by the student participants, ensuring an iterative analysis process and a final report that showcased student priorities and voices. 

Research Activities: Student study journey mapping and analysis, collaborative focus groups, school staff survey, quantitative data analysis. 

Role: Project Coordinator

Funding: Adelaide Nursing School Grant Scheme 

Collaborators: Arna Westhead, Kynesha Temple-Varcoe, Melissa Arnold-Ujvari (CI), Amy Wells, Yvette Salamon & Janet Kelly. 

AKction2; Aboriginal Kidney Care Together – Improving Outcomes Now. 

Project Timeline: April 2021-March 2026 (currently underway)

Location: Adelaide Nursing School, University of Adelaide

Description: AKction2 builds on AKction 1 where Aboriginal patients and their families are involved in community consultations and patient journey mapping to inform renal care and clinical guideline development. An Aboriginal patient reference group continues to provide an advisory and consultation role, identifying barriers and gaps in care journeys. AKction2 extends and centres the role of Aboriginal patients, and community members from advisory to leadership and Indigenous governance, with active involvement in key decision making within research and health care redesign. Aboriginal renal patients & family members are now positioned as chief investigators, supported by the AKction Reference Group and a multidisciplinary team of managers, coordinators, medical, nursing, allied health and support staff and services.

Research Activities: Research protocol development, Ethics application development, Community consultations, patient journey mapping, stakeholder engagement and workshops, semi-structured interviews, survey of staff, education program development, piloting new models of care.

Role: Project Coordinator - Sub-study 3 & 4 (Health Journey Mapping and Cultural Safety) 

Funding: NHMRC Ideas Grant

Collaborators: Central Northern Adelaide Renal & Transplantation Service (CNARTS), SA Health, Kidney Health Australia, National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce (NIKTT), Aboriginal Chronic Disease Consortium, Pika Wiya Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (Port Augusta), Ceduna Hospital (and more being established).



AKction 1; Aboriginal Kidney Care Together – Improving Outcomes Now. 

Project Timeline: January 2019 – December 2021

Location: Adelaide Nursing School, University of Adelaide

Description: AKction was a collaborative action research project involving Aboriginal people with kidney disease and their families, health professionals, renal services, health and support services, universities and other key stakeholders. The project aimed to bring together these groups to collaboratively evaluate and improve kidney care in South Australia.

Research Activities: community consultations, patient journey mapping, priority setting and implementation of improvement strategies.

Role: Research Assistant

Funding: Health Translation SA – Rapid Applied Research Translation for Health Impact Grant.

Collaborators: Central Northern Adelaide Renal & Transplantation Service (CNARTS), SA Health, Kidney Health Australia, Aboriginal Chronic Disease Consortium, Pika Wiya Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (Port Augusta), Ceduna Hospital, Health Translation SA.

Research Outputs:

AKction Reference Group comprising Aboriginal patients and family members with lived experience of kidney disease and kidney care

Patient Journey Mapping Tools specific to Aboriginal Kidney Care

Educational video

Radio interviews

Annual key stakeholder workshops

Community consultation reports for Adelaide, Port Augusta and Ceduna

The Embryo Selfie; using gray level co-occurrence matrices (GLCM) to assess pre-implantation embryo viability.

Timeline: January – November 2017 (Honours Project)

Location: Reproductive Success Lab, Robinson Research Institute, Adelaide University Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Description: This project aimed to use GLCM to assess textural differences in images of developing embryos that were indicative of success.

Research Activities: Murine embryo collection and culture, Time-lapse embryo assessment, Live embryo organelle staining, microscope imaging, micro-ultrastructural image analysis, PRISM statistical analysis.

Collaborators: Repromed, Centre for Nanoscale Bio-photonics.