Vacation Study Program
Are you a second, third or fourth year university student?
Gain experience in conducting health research through the ACT Health Vacation Study Program.
The program involves a 6-week placement at Canberra Health Services or ACT Health.
You can:
- build research capability
- ignite your passion for research, especially if you’re not already engaged in a research degree, and
- get the skills to embed research into your future career.
Key dates
- Student applications open 19 August 2024
- Student applications close 9 September 2024
- Students notified of outcome 17 September 2024
- Placements are any 6-week period between November 2024 and February 2025
- Pre-placement workshop (in-person): 24 October 2024
- Research development skills workshops (in-person):
- Introduction to data analytics workshop: 28 November 2024
- Introduction to science communication workshop: 5 December 2024
- Presentation skills workshop: 16 January 2025
- Final student presentation 7 February 2025
Projects
The following projects have been accepted and are part of the Vacation Study Program 2024–2025:
| Number | Supervisor | Project title |
|---|---|---|
1 | Toni Ashmore | End of life care in acute hospital settings |
2 | Anna Brichacek | Evaluation of the eating disorders residential treatment centre |
3 | Nicola Irwin | The impact of nirsevimab on the burden of RSV infection in children under 2 years of age in the ACT |
4 | Rebecca Brown | Incidents and mechanisms of geriatric trauma treated at the Canberra hospital |
5 | Rachel Wei Li | Preclinical trial using sheep model - 3B materials for future orthopaedic implants |
6 | Paul Craft | Outcomes from treatment of sarcoma in Canberra Health Services |
7 | Margaret Broom | Going home from NICU: how can we prepare parent confidence in preparation for discharge |
8 | C.J. Cabilan | What do we know about behaviour support plans to reduce the likelihood of occupational violence in acute care settings? A scoping review |
9 | Joanna Mills | Rethinking the medical vocation: balancing professional and personal priorities for junior doctors in Canberra |
10 | Amanda Dyson | Reducing jargon use in medical staff in neonatology |
11 | Georgina Chelberg | Feasibility of local parkrun events as inclusive community spaces for people living with dementia: a scoping review |
12 | Clare Stephenson | Development of an at home rehabilitation intervention for people with dementia using co-design: a qualitative analysis |
13 | Jay Chen | Analysing the impact of influenza vaccination rates on respiratory disease spread in the ACT |
14 | Drew Richardson | Impact of the national IV fluid shortage on emergency medicine |
15 | Walter Abhayaratna | Modelling different approaches to integrated care for the clinical management of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) disease using system dynamics |
16 | Alison Lally | Management of neonatal Sepsis in Canberra Hospital ED |
17 | Michelle Fisher | Falls prevention: Identifying best practice falls prevention approaches to reduce the number of preventable falls in the ACT. |
18 | George McNamara | ACT Health: How to train your natural language program (or dragon). |
19 | Jess Lutan | Health promotion and prevention evidence-based strategies to curtail alcohol-related harmful behaviours |
Download the Vacation study program 2024-25 projects [PDF 890 KB] for more information about each project.
More information
Contact the Centre for Health and Medical Research by emailing VSP@act.gov.au.