Carrie Van Rensburg
Thesis Title
Using a reproductive justice framework to develop, adapt, and validate the person-centered abortion care scale for the Australian context
Description of Research Project
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Abortion Care Guideline defines quality abortion care as accessible, effective, efficient, equitable, safe and patient-centred. Access to quality abortion care is critical to fulfilling sexual and reproductive health and rights. Person-centred abortion care (PCAC), adapted from the definition of person-centred care (PCC) for reproductive health by Sudhinaraset et al. (2017), refers to providing abortion care that is respectful of and responsive to the needs and values of individuals seeking an abortion, ensuring that their values guide all clinical decisions. A growing body of evidence links PCC to a variety of quality outcomes such as improved experiences of care and health outcomes, as well as decreased utilisation and costs of healthcare services. There is growing acknowledgment across the sexual and reproductive health sector and in healthcare more generally, that person-centred outcomes should be prioritized to the same extent as safety and clinical outcomes. As such, it is essential that the perspectives and experiences of people seeking abortions are used to inform standards and measurements of quality abortion care. This PhD study will take a reproductive justice approach to adapting the person-centred abortion care scale, developed and validated by Sudhinaraset et al. (2024), for the Australian context.
Supervisors
Principle Supervisor: Prof Louise Keogh
Co-Supervisor: Dr Mridula Shankar
Co-Supervisor: Dr Shelly Makleff
Biography
Carrie is passionate about reproductive justice and improving quality of abortion care. Carrie completed her Master of Public Health at the University of Melbourne. As part of her degree, she undertook a qualitative research project exploring strategies for organisational advocacy targeted at improving access to medication abortion in Victoria, Australia following the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Carrie is also currently working as a research assistant in the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health where she is supporting a scoping review on tools and approaches for centering digital health equity during technology innovation. She is assisting Dr Kara Burns in leading the team of 22 authors which spans 8 different countries. Last year, Carrie helped to develop a series of prioritised recommendations about the digital technologies that could support adherence to guidelines and timely referral to specialist pain management expertise and palliative care for the National Pancreatic Cancer Roadmap.
Funding/Scholarships
The Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (Stipend)
ORCID ID: 0009-0008-4274-1276
Social Media: LinkedIn