Profile
position: Professorial Research Fellow
department: Research Division
Australia
Professor Desley Hegney is a Professor of Nursing at the Research Division, Central Queensland University, Brisbane Campus She was the inaugural President of the Association for Australian Rural Nurses and was the inaugural Editor of the Australian Journal of Rural Health (1992 - 2002). Her research has concentrated on nursing workforce issues in primary health care including the first published research on the role and function of the rural nurse in Australia. She is extensively published in rural nursing workforce issues, compassion fatigue and resilience. She has also undertaken research into the role of the registered and enrolled nurse employed in general practice.
Other research into health service delivery models in rural Australia have included the effectiveness of a community health nurse in the ED to prevent re-presentations of elderly patients; infant feeding support services in rural Queensland; the effectiveness of an outreach palliative care service in rural Queensland; and the use of a triage tool to standardise triage assessment by nurses in the ED.
Articles contributed to by this person
Original Research 17 September 2009
Accommodation needs for carers of and adults with intellectual disability in regional Australia: their hopes for and perceptions of the future
Original Research 22 October 2007
Individual resilience in rural people: a Queensland study, Australia
Original Research 20 July 2007
Gender and personal breastfeeding experience of rural GP registrars in Australia - a qualitative study of their effect on breastfeeding attitudes and knowledge
Original Research 22 February 2006
SEAM - improving the quality of palliative care in regional Toowoomba, Australia: lessons learned
Original Research 24 June 2004
General practitioners' perceptions of after hours primary medical care services: a Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia study
Project Report 27 April 2004
Planning research in rural and remote areas
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AI scribes in rural and remote primary care
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Exploring paramedic confidence in out-of-hospital births and obstetric emergencies
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Discrepancies in clinical coding between rural and urban hospitals after interhospital transfer
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2025 National Nursing Forum, 23–25 July 2025, Canberra, Australia
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16th National Allied Health Conference: Empowering lives, shaping healthcare, 11–14 August 2025, Adelaide, Australia
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2025 Gayaa Dhuwi Conference, 28–29 August 2025, Garramilla (Darwin), Australia
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National Tribal Health Conference, 7–12 September 2025, Chandler, AZ, USA
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2025 National First Nations Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Conference, 15–17 September 2025, Gold Coast, Australia
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Rural Health Conference 2025 (PACASA, RuDASA, RuNurSA, RuReSA), 16–18 September 2025, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
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WONCA World Conference 2025: New Vision for Primary Health Care and Sustainable Development, 17–21 September 2025, Lisbon, Portugal
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NRHA 23rd Rural Health Clinic Conference, 23–24 September 2025, Kansas, MO, USA
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10th Rural & Remote Health Scientific Symposium, 8 & 9 October 2025, Alice Springs, NT, Australia
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Indigenous Wellbeing Conference 2025, 20–21 October 2025, Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia
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2025 Health Leadership Congress, 22–24 October 2025, Darwin, Australia
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Rural Medicine Australia Conference (RMA25), 22–25 October 2025, Boorloo (Perth), Australia
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Rural Mental Health Conference 2025 (RMHC25), 5–7 November 2025, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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SARGA 2026, Rural Generalist Anaesthetist Conference, 12–14 February 2026, Barossa Valley, South Australia
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21st WONCA World Rural Health Conference, 10–13 April 2026, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
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33rd Annual Rural and Remote Medicine Conference, 16–18 April 2026, Quebec City, Canada
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4th EURACT Medical Education Conference, 23–25 April 2026, Iasi, Romania
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11th Health Promotion Conference, 10–12 June 2026, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Harstad, Norway
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9th WONCA Africa Region Conference 2026, 10 & 11 September 2026, Gaborone, Botswana
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18th National Rural Health Conference, 14–17 September 2026, Adelaide, SA, Australia
World Indigenous Suicide Prevention Conference 2026, 17–19 September 2026, Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), New Zealand
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