Dr Karachi visited Melbourne, Australia from the 9th -18th October 2019 as part of a Scientific Visit to the Department of Physiotherapy at Melbourne University and to attend and participate in the World Congress of Intensive Care (WCIC) 2019 where she presented her PhD research studies.
Dr Karachi also spent time with international experts in the field of Intensive Care and Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Research and Teaching and Learning such as Professor Linda Denehy (Professor of Physiotherapy at The University of Melbourne and Head of Allied Health Research at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre), Dr Karen Donald (Programme Director and Senior Lecturer Physiotherapy), Dr Selina Parry (Senior Lecturer [Cardiorespiratory] & Postdoctoral Research Fellow) and Mr Aiden Smart (Associate Physiotherapy Lecturer [Cardiorespiratory]) and a few others like Professor Carol Hodgson (Deputy Director of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research) and Dr Bronwen Connolly (Senior Lecturer in Critical Care at Queen’s University, Belfast).
She also visited the Austin Health Hospital where she observed a team of ICU Physiotherapists in the ICU rehabilitating a variety of clients/patients. Dr Tom Rollinson, a Senior ICU Physiotherapy Clinician and his Team of Physiotherapists demonstrated some of their patient management routines and interaction with the ICU multidisciplinary team as well as student physiotherapy training.
The scientific visit included a tour of the Melbourne Campus, Melbourne Physiotherapy Department and Medical Building, Peter Mac Callum Cancer Centre and discussions and sharing of ideas with Prof Linda Denehy and colleagues on current research in the area of Intensive Care and Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy. Furthermore, Dr Karachi had discussions regarding the current ICU and Cardiorespiratory Curriculum and Curriculum design which she hopes to implement in her teaching and learning here at UWC Physiotherapy department. She also attended Cardiorespiratory simulation sessions with students guided by Dr Aiden Smart and Dr Selina Parry.
An additional highlight was attending an ePortfolio Workshop with the staff from the Health Sciences Faculty that entailed discussions around the development and use of ePortfolios for students in the faculty.
Dr Karachi combined the scientific visit with attendance and participation in the WCIC 2019 where she attended a pre-congress early mobility in ICU lecture and discussion workshop and presented three papers which included two posters and an oral presentation of the three studies related to the implementation of an evidence based validated physiotherapy protocol for the management of surgical ICU patients. The presentation included research about the tailoring of implementation strategies for a group of public sector physiotherapists using the nominal group technique, implementation of the protocol using a controlled before and after trial and quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the effectiveness of the best-practice implementation process. Her work received much interest and was on par with the current research on implementation science in intensive care. She networked with many other ICU health care professionals at the Congress.
Overall, the visit was successful and she also had some time to tour Melbourne, which is known as the most liveable city in the world, visit the Melbourne Zoo and St Kilda city and beach, take the scenic Great Ocean Road Trip, and collaborate on Implementation Science in Physiotherapy over coffee with Jessica Stander from Stellenbosch University who is now staying and working in Melbourne!
