University of Tasmania, Australia

Assoc/Prof Jeff Patrick

Associate Professor of Health Services Management

Contact Details

General Responsibilities

Teaching Responsibilities

Jeff has taught at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. Courses (units) include Organisational Psychology, Interpersonal Skills, Directions in Organisational Behaviour, Strategy and Organization, Advanced Research Methods and Statistics, Multivariate Statistics, Advanced Research Techniques, Special Topics in Business Administration, and more. Independent student evaluations consistently place Jeff well above the National benchmarks. One of his previous Heads of Department (Professor Peter Terry) said that “Jeff is quite clearly an excellent teacher… I particularly admire his ability to enthuse and inspire students to engage in statistics, an area of the curriculum that traditionally strikes terror into the hearts of psychology students. Moreover, he is generous to a fault in giving his time to students and colleagues to help clarify difficult conceptual issues. His leadership in this area is greatly appreciated.”

Current Doctoral Students

• Amanda Larkin (Chief Executive, South Western Sydney Local Health Network): Effective clinical networks: Attributes, functioning, and outcomes.
• Ann Kelly (General Manager, Canterbury Hospital): Attributes of a successful chronic disease management program.
• Anthony Schembri (General Manager, Liverpool Hospital): Promoting awareness of environmental sustainability initiatives among hospital managers.
• Chris Leahy (General Manager, Fairfield Hospital): Succession Planning – Identifying barriers in Sydney South West Area Health Service.
• Delphine Hannigan (Community and Organisational Research Unit): Maximising retention among nurses: Theoretical, practical and effective insights.
• Dr Claire Blizard (Director of Clinical Practice and Innovation, Clinical Support Cluster Western): Likely impact of coming changes to health funding on NSW hospitals.
• Genevieve Wallace (Service Director, BreastScreen Sydney Local Health Network): Barriers to Aboriginal people in accessing chronic care management programs.
• Jason Cheng (Director of Corporate Services & Finance Canterbury Hospital): Patients’ decision about utilization of private health insurance: Their motivation and its impact.
• Lavena Ramdutt (General Manager, Oral Health Services and Sydney Dental Hospital): Infrastructure planning: Navigating the challenges to successful facility planning in the NSW public health system.
• Paul Miles (Director, Corporate Services & Finance Fairfield Hospital): Can a short-cycle feedback incident reporting system improve reporting rates, decrease actual incidents, and decrease the severity of incidents?
• Tim Sinclair (General Manager, Balmain Hospital): Liverpool hospital nursing recruitment: Particular challenges in Australia’s largest hospital.

Achievements

Career Summary

In 1999 Jeff accepted his first academic position with the School of Management at Griffith University. In 2003 he moved to the Department of Psychology at the University of Southern Queensland, where he was seconded as a Senior Research Fellow for a time with the Community and Organisational Research and Evaluation Unit. Jeff was involved with a major project with Queensland Health undertaking state-wide staff surveys. In 2010 he accepted a position with the School of Social Sciences at the University of the Sunshine Coast where he worked for a year before being head-hunted for his current position. In late 2010 Jeff was appointed as Associate Professor of Health Service Management with the Faculty of Business. The position is wholly funded by NSW Health, and he is permanently embedded in the Clinical Support Cluster (Western) where he conducts research and coordinates the Doctor of Business Administration (Health Service Management) program for senior administrators within the health service.

Research Interests

Jeff has received over $760,000 in industry research grants to date. These projects have also led to bona fide research outputs such as Honours and Research and Higher Degree completions, and peer-reviewed publications. A current project is with NSW Health and aims to define the character of effective managers, and use this information for talent scouting and performance management with NSW health services and hospitals. Jeff has dozens of peer reviewed publications. Here is a selection of some of them. 

• Alcorn, K., O'Donovan, A., Patrick, J., Creedy, D. & Devilly, G. (2010). Prospective Longitudinal Study of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Resulting from Childbirth. Psychological Medicine, 40 (11), 1849-1859.
• Machin, M. A., Goh, H.E., Patrick, J. and Jury, C. (2010). Establishing links between organizational climate, employee well-being and historical patient outcomes. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology, Melbourne: Australia.
• Patrick, J., Dyck, M. & Bramston, P. (2010). Depression anxiety stress scale (DASS): Is it valid for adolescents? Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66 (9), 996–1007.
• Hannigan, D. & Patrick, J. (2009). Are “magnet” principles relevant in an Australian setting? Proceedings of the 9th Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference. Melbourne: Australian Psychological Society.
• Jury, C., Machin, M., Phillips, J., Goh, H., Olsen, S. & Patrick, J. (2009). Developing and implementing an action-oriented staff survey: Queensland Health and the “Better Workplaces” initiative. Australian Health Review, 33 (3), 365-370.
• Dyck, M.J., Piek, J.P., Kane, R., & Patrick, J. (2009). How uniform is the structure of ability across childhood? European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6 (4), 432-454.
• Albion, M.J., Fogarty, G.J., Machin, M.A & Patrick, J. (2008). Predicting Absenteeism and Turnover Intentions in the Health Professions. Australian Health Review, 32 (2), 271-281.
• Goh, H.E., Machin, M.A. & Patrick, J. (2007). Attributes of Immediate Supervisor in Promoting Trust with Employees in a Public Sector Organisation. Proceedings of the 7th Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference; Better Work, Better Organisations, Better World. Melbourne: Australian Psychological Society.
• Patrick, J. (2005). The economic value of psychology in Australia: 2001. Australian Psychologist, 40(3), 149-158.
• Patrick, J. (2000). Born to lead: Evidence of a biological predisposition for transformational leadership? In M. Sheehan, M. Ramsay & J. Patrick (Ed.), Transcending boundaries: Integrating people, processes and systems (pp. 293-298). Brisbane: Griffith University.
• Patrick, J. (2000). What causes small businesses to fail: The hidden role of psycho-social factors. In M. Sheehan, M. Ramsay & J. Patrick (Ed.), Transcending boundaries: Integrating people, processes and systems (pp. 299-302). Brisbane: Griffith University.
• Patrick, J. (1999). Shared characteristics of effective leaders and trainers. In C. Fraser, M. Barker & A. Martin (Ed.), Organisations looking ahead: Challenges and directions (pp. 249-256). Brisbane: Griffith University.