Samantha Jakimowicz

Associate Professor Samantha Jakimowicz

RN, BCHC, BNurs(Hons), PhD, FACN, MACCCN

Samantha joined Charles Sturt University from the NSW Ministry of Health and University of Technology Sydney. She brought with her experience as a critical care Registered Nurse, psychotherapist and clinical researcher. Samantha has built her academic and research profile through teaching, service and engagement and strong relationships within university, industry and community partnerships. As Associate Professor of Nursing, Samantha’s academic focus sits with leadership, management and building research capacity in nurses and those working in healthcare. The philosophy underpinning her teaching and research activities originates from psychologist, Carl Rogers: unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence. Using this philosophy, and her doctoral research as a base, she has made a significant contribution to the nursing profession and overall healthcare professional wellbeing through programs of education and research.

Samantha recently was awarded the prestigious Australian Awards for University Teaching Citation for outstanding contribution to student learning. Other key achievements include development of a suite of e-learning modules for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA); introduction of Schwartz Rounds (a wellbeing program) to inter-disciplinary, higher education students; evaluation of a number of state and federal government programs the specialty nursing program for the PFCA for Department of Health and Ageing, and the development of a practice framework for Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurses. As the Director Professional Engagement, I led a review and redesign of the Affiliate Membership program, as well as programs offered through the ACN Institute of Leadership. Her strength in relationship building has resulted in close working ties with Chief Nurses and government ministers’ offices from around Australia.

Samantha is passionate about the wellbeing and education of healthcare professionals, consumers and members of the community. She has been awarded over $1,000,000 in external funding and $54,000 in university funding, leading large research, evaluation and education projects at the University of Technology Sydney in partnership with PCFA and NSW Health.

Samantha is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing and an active member of several professional bodies. Her involvement is outlined below:

Australian College of Nursing:

- Fellow since 2020

- Member since 2009

- Deputy Chair, NSW Region

- Co-committee Chair, Nurses and Violence Taskforce – Nurses experience DFV

- Member Nurse Workforce Sustainability Policy Chapter

Australian College of Critical Care Nurses:

- Member since 2014

- Committee member, NSW Region Branch Committee

Other memberships:

- SPHERE (Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise)

- International Consortium of Occupational Resilience (ICOR)

- Australian & New Zealand Clinical Trials Group

- New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association

- Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation of Australia

Samantha’s main teaching focus is health management and leadership. She has led subject development and curriculum design for postgraduate courses; worked alongside key stakeholders in industry in consultation to meet accreditation requirements; and mentored academic coworkers in resource development.

Samantha is passionate about developing innovative and creative learning resources that always include compassion and empathic ways of working in healthcare. An example of her work can be found in the Virtual Empathy Museum, an open access, engaging and experiential digital resource that contains immersive curriculum materials to enhance healthcare student empathy skills. Samantha and the team were recently awarded the prestigious ‘Awards for University Teaching Citation’ for outstanding contribution to student learning for this initiative.

Samantha been contracted to develop e-learning resources for advanced practice and specialty nurses such as Prostate Cancer Specialist Nurses by federally funded national bodies. She uses a co-design approach involving subject matter experts, physicians, clinicians and consumers and families in her work. Samantha’s resource development is always evaluated in a scholarly fashion, resulting in peer-reviewed papers, presentations and text book chapters.

Samantha's research focuses on three main streams: wellbeing support and education of (1) healthcare professionals (HCP); (2) consumers and the (3) community.

Samantha is committed to enhancing wellbeing of those learning about, working in and using healthcare services through providing an evidence base that is translated into the clinical setting. Her research interests specifically include: wellbeing and education; healthcare student experience, including professional and transition to practice; inter-professional experience; empathy; compassion; workforce culture and retention.

Samantha has extensive experience in mixed method research including grounded theory, co-design approaches and systematic reviews. She is a reviewer for multiple nursing and healthcare journals including Journal of Advanced Nursing, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Collegian and European Journal of Cancer Care.

Samantha has forged national and international research collaborative relationships resulting in wellbeing interventions such as Schwartz Rounds, Compassionate Leadership and Empathy circles being adopted within higher education and healthcare facilities. In 2018 she was awarded her PhD, titled: An investigation of patient-centred nursing and compassion satisfaction or compassion fatigue in Australian intensive care units arose from her experience as an intensive care nurse.

Samantha has secured funding for Charles Sturt University to partner with NSW Ministry of Health in evaluating several programs including the Patient Experience Officer Program in NSW Emergency Departments. Since 2018, she has been awarded over $1,000,000 in external funding and $54,000 in university funding, leading large research, evaluation and education projects at the University of Technology Sydney in partnership with PCFA and NSW Health.