CHE PhD Confirmation Seminar - Carrie Van Rensburg

Title: Using a reproductive justice framework to adapt and refine an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care in Australia

Bio: 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 centring digital health equity during technology innovation.

Supervisors: Prof Louise Keogh (CHE), Dr Shelly Makleff (CHE), Dr Mridula Shankar (Nossal Institute for Global Health)

Abstract: Abortion, whether by surgical or medication methods, is a safe and essential component of healthcare. The availability of reliable information on healthcare service quality for abortion is crucial to informing to building the basis for quality improvement strategies. Person-centredness is a core dimension of healthcare service quality. It refers to the responsiveness and respectfulness of healthcare services towards the needs, values, and preferences of people seeking care. Currently, no scale exists for measuring person-centred abortion care for the Australian context. Guided by a reproductive justice approach, this PhD programs aims to adapt and refine an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care for the Australian context. Firstly, the thesis will centre the perspectives of abortion seekers by conducting a scoping review on the aspects of person-centred abortion care that abortion seekers deem important or value in their care. Secondly, the thesis will follow the content validity standards set by the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) group to adapt and refine an instrument to measure person-centred abortion care in Australia. This body of work will produce a content validated tool for measuring person-centred abortion care in Australia. Future research will be needed to psychometrically validate the tool in Australia.

Zoom: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/4h6p

Passcode: 502547

Location: Seminar room 515, 207 Bouverie St

Date and Time: Wednesday 26 March, 9:30am