Dr Roma Forbes

Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy

School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
r.forbes2@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52718

Overview

Roma Forbes is the Program Director of the Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) program at The University of Queensland. She is a highly experienced APA titled musculoskeletal physiotherapist and Senior Teaching-Focused Lecturer. Roma is a Director of the Australian Physiotherapy Council and the national Chair of the Accreditation Committee, and represents Australia on the World Physiotherapy Education Committee.

Ensuring health professional students are prepared for a challenging and changing workforce is a global priority. Roma leads a program of research that explores the use of work integrated learning and the readiness of health professional graduates across emerging and challenging aspects of clinical practice and workplace settings. This research also aims to understand the impacts of workplace mentoring and support on the career intentions of health professionals.

Her PhD (2017) explored the use of patient education in physiotherapy practice and investigated approaches for the effective teaching of patient education skills to health professional students. Her current research focuses on teaching and learning in the health professions, with a specific focus on graduate preparedness for clinical practice and outcomes of clinical education. This research uses several approaches to explore graduate, educator, and employer perspectives with a focus on knowledge translation to improve clinical education capacity and outcomes. She has a strong track record of national and international collaborations in patient education practice, clinical education capacity, and physiotherapy teaching and learning. Roma is passionate about health professional education research and enhancing graduate readiness for practice.

Awards and Fellowships

  • Advance Higher Education Global Impact Award (2023)
  • The University of Queensland Award for Teaching Excellence (2023)
  • Association for the Study of Medical Education - Medical Education Developing Scholarship Award (2023)
  • Higher Education Academy Senior Fellow (2023)
  • Health and Behavioural Sciences Faculty Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (2023)
  • Australian Award for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2021)
  • Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Fellow (2021)
  • The University of Queensland Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2020)
  • Flinders University - ANZAHPE Award for Excellence in Health Professional Education (2020)
  • Higher Eduction Academy Fellow (2019)
  • Heath and Behavioural Sciences Faculty Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2019)
  • School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2018)
  • Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) Associate Fellow (2018)

Research Impacts

Dr Forbes has collaborated with teams from a range of institutions and industry to lead the adoption of patient education training innovations and frameworks into health professional programs within Australia and internationally. This has been achieved by developing educator-focused frameworks and training guidelines that allow models to be embedded into clinical and classroom settings across a range of health professions.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, The University of Queensland
  • Masters (Coursework), Auckland University of Technology
  • Postgraduate Diploma, Auckland University of Technology
  • Bachelor, Auckland University of Technology

Publications

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Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Master Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.