You will work with an international team of collaborative researchers led by MS Australia Fellow Associate Professor Yvonne Learmonth on the Provider education in using strategies for exercise promotion in MS (PULSE) project.

We have shown that exercise improves physical fitness, walking mobility, cognition, fatigue, quality of life, depressive symptoms and pain. Yet there are countless lost opportunities for healthcare professionals (HCPs) to give persons with MS the knowledge, confidence, and mindset to include and sustain exercise behaviour in their lives. Integrating partnerships between persons with MS, HCPs and researchers and following implementation principles, to test the development of health communication tools, can analytically determine the acceptability, feasibility and likely sustainability of health promotion.  

This PhD project will involve building skills in some or all of the following: synthesising existing evidence, coordinating and conducting stakeholder interviews and focus groups, developing digital health promotion education tools, assessing the feasibility of delivering the evidence in clinical practice, and analysing small data sets.  

Upon completing your PhD, we consider the transferable skills and collaborations will prepare you for jobs in, for example, leadership in non-profit organisations, leadership in local or national government, further academic or professional research, and health and clinical communication roles.

You’ll join a collaborative team of enthusiastic researchers and experts in health behaviours from Canada, America and Australia, led by A/Professors Yvonne Learmonth, Susan Slatyer and others. You will be based within the Health Futures Institute at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. Other collaborators include Associate Professor Claudia Marck at the University of Melbourne, with wider collaborations including researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the University of Saskatchewan.

Our research team and Murdoch University are committed to creating a friendly and diverse learning environment. We are proud to welcome equal opportunities for all students. All relevant and qualified applicants will receive scholarship consideration without regard to race, colour, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, or age. In keeping with the research project and our experience completing our PhDs, the research team particularly welcomes interest from participants who are collaborative critical thinkers with a passion for persevering towards their goals.