ACT Health researcher wins National PhD award

ACT Health Minister, Katy Gallagher MLA, today congratulated ACT Health’s Dr Peter Nugus on winning the prestigious “Jean Martin Award” for the best PhD in the Australian social sciences
2007-09.

Dr Nugus is a Research Fellow on ACT Health’s Inter-professional Learning Research Project. He has been seconded from the University of New South Wales to work at ACT Health on this project.

“I’d like to congratulate Dr Nugus on his receipt of this prestigious award from The Australian Sociological Association,” Ms Gallagher said.

“In the 30-year history of the award, it has only ever once been awarded for a health-related topic, and this is the first time a scholar not enrolled in a social science department has received this award.

“In awarding the prize to Dr Nugus at the ANU, the chair of the panel recognised Dr Nugus’s PhD thesis as an outstanding contribution to Australian sociological scholarship.

“His thesis was an in-depth sociological study of hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) that provided a ‘behind-the-curtain’ view of life working in the ED.

“It focused specifically on the negotiation processes and communication skills emergency clinicians use when engaging clinicians from other departments to become involved in caring for patients.

“The panel determined that the thesis was exceptionally well organised, theoretically sophisticated and overall an interesting and well executed study.

“Dr Nugus has also recently been published in the Christmas edition of the prestigious British Medical Journal.

“The ACT community can only benefit from Dr Nugus’s skills and experience,” Ms Gallagher said.

14 January 2010