Rate My Professor Julie Depczynski

Dr. Julie Depczynski is a Research Academic with the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health (UONDRH), based in the Moree Education Centre within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. She has a background in nursing, with clinical experience across a range of rural communities and settings, including positions as a Registered Nurse at Moree Plains Health Service, Fairview Home for the Aged, Bourke Aboriginal Health Service, and Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor from 1989 to 2003. Depczynski holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Sydney (2017), where her research was a data linkage study comparing cancer indicators between farm, rural non-farm, and urban residents enrolled in the Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Study. Additional qualifications include a Master of Nursing, Bachelor of Science, and Graduate Diploma of Education, all from the University of New England.

Prior to joining UONDRH as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in September 2018, Depczynski served as a Research Officer at the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety, School of Rural Health, University of Sydney from 2001 to 2016, working on farm health and injury research as well as farm safety promotion projects with rural communities and health networks. Her current research focuses on rural health services, workforce issues, and equity of health outcomes for rural people, employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Fields of research include rural and remote health services (25%), nursing workforce (50%), and epidemiology not elsewhere classified (25%). Key projects are a collaboration investigating factors affecting cancer outcomes for people in the New England North West region with Hunter New England Local Health District and the University of Sydney, and the multi-university Nursing and Allied Health Graduate Outcomes Tracking Study (NAHGOT).

Depczynski has produced significant publications, including books such as Farm Health and Safety Toolkit for Rural General Practices (2009) and RIPPER II: Growing Kids on Farms. An Education Resource for Primary Schools (2008). Notable journal articles comprise 'Mental health service use and cost by Australian women in metropolitan and rural areas' (Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2024, with Dolja-Gore et al.), 'Factors influencing nursing and allied health recent graduates' rural versus urban preferred principal place of practice: A cross-sectional data linkage study' (Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2024, with Fisher et al.), 'Medical treatment decision-making in rural cancer patients: A qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis' (Patient Education and Counseling, 2022, with Basile et al.), and 'Destinations of nursing and allied health graduates from two Australian universities: A data linkage study to inform rural placement models' (Australian Journal of Rural Health, 2021, with Sutton et al.). Conference presentations include 'Exploring regional outcomes of cancer care in the New England North West region of NSW' (2024).