Tonia Crawford

Lecturer
RN, DipAppSc(Nurs) Avondale BHlthSc(Nurs) CSU MHlthSc(Ed) Sydney TESOL Cert UNSW Postgrad Cert Ling Res Macquarie

Tonia has worked as a Registered Nurse since 1988 in several Australian and Irish hospitals in surgical, medical and emergency departments, including 10 years in community health as a clinical nurse specialist with particular interest in wound management. During that time she volunteered in Papua New Guinea (12 months) conducting HIV/AIDs education and Kosovo (4 months) for returning refugee accommodation. She developed an interest in adult education while teaching health education classes (respiratory rehabilitation, arthritis management) and this ultimately led to teaching undergraduate nurses. Tonia has worked as a unit coordinator and lecturer in a Bachelor of Nursing program for the past six years for units such as Community Health Nursing, Clinical Practice, Ethics, and Primary Health Care. She joined Sydney Nursing School in 2013.

Tonia also has an interest in teaching English as a second/other language (ESL), completing a TESOL certificate and subsequently designing and implemented English language support workshops. She conducted research to identify the language needs of the ESL students which informed further development of the workshops and has resulted in publications, presentations and plans to extend the research into a PhD program.

Research interests

• Language needs of students with English as a second/other language
• Strategies for teaching students with an ESL background
• Safe practice and clinical communication with English as a second/other language

Areas of teaching

Pre-registration graduate entry and combined degree master's program

Publications

Crawford, T. (2011). Using Problem Based Learning In Web-Based Components Of Nurse Education. Nurse Education in Practice. 11, 124-130. doi10.1016/j.nepr.2010.10.010

Crawford, T. & Candlin, S. (2012). Investigating the language needs of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Nursing Students to assist the completion of the Bachelor of Nursing to become safe and effective practitioners. Nurse Education Today. doi10.1016/j.nedt.2012.03.005

Crawford, T. & Candlin, S. (2012). A Literature review of the language needs of nursing students who have English as a second/other language and the effectiveness of English Language support programmes. Nurse Education in Practice. doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2012.09.008

Presentations

Investigating the language needs of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Nursing Students to assist the completion of the Bachelor of Nursing. 7th International Symposium of Teaching English at Tertiary Level. (2011). Polytechinic University, Hong Kong.

Identification of the language needs of nursing students for whom English is a second language, and the subsequent development of appropriate teaching/learning strategies that will meet those needs. Learning and Teaching Week (2011). Avondale College of Higher Education, NSW Australia.

Memberships

Member Australian College of Nursing
Member Australian Nurse Teachers Society

Community

Student Mentor for postgraduate students, University of Sydney

Journal reviewer

Nurse Education Today
Elsevier Publications
McMasters Best Evidence for Nursing – community/public health