Dr. Louise Horstmanshof

Louise Horstmanshof (BA, GradDipApPsych, MOrgPsych, PhD) has been researching and publishing for over 20 years with a focus on person-centred ageing and aged care.  She led two Australian Department of Health (formerly HWA) grant projects for Southern Cross University. These projects were aimed at increasing student placements in Primary Health Care settings and with older adults. Despite not being a research project, Dr Horstmanshof published the positive findings for both Nursing and Allied Health students and older adults from this community engagement project. With her team Dr Horstmanshof was awarded a community engagement award for this work. 

From her experience of working with students and their supervisors to prepare health-work students for practice, she has developed a keen understanding of the explicit and implicit expectations and requirements of the various stakeholders and how to best manage these. This skill is key to maximising the outcomes of such interactions and relationships. She is published in this area of training and preparation of health workers. 

Louise has held several leadership roles in the university. She was the Chair of School Board for the School of Health and Human Sciences from 2019-2021. Currently she is in Psychology in the Faculty of Health and is the Unit Assessor for Development Across the Lifespan (Bachelor of Psychological Sciences) and Applied Research and Evaluation for the Psychological Scientist-Practitioner in the Psychology Honours Degree. Louise is a strong advocate for Interprofessional teaching and learning. She supervises several PhD students and also students from the Psychology Honours Degree.