Rate My Professor Stuart Ekberg

Associate Professor Stuart Ekberg is a social scientist with almost 20 years of experience studying social aspects of wellbeing and healthcare. He serves as Associate Professor (Research) in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University and is a full member of the Caring Futures Institute. Holding a PhD, Ekberg's research employs conversation analysis on video recordings of routine clinical encounters to examine interactions among patients, family members, and clinicians, highlighting communication as a key healthcare procedure. His work spans palliative care, primary care, paediatric healthcare, Indigenous mental health, and cancer-related symptom management.

Ekberg is Director of Research for the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Paediatric Palliative Care, advancing evidence for care of children and young people with life-threatening conditions. He leads an Australian Research Council Discovery Project on discussions and agreements for future care. As a member of the Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying, he focuses on clinician-patient interactions in palliative settings. Key publications include 'Supporting cancer-related fatigue self-management: A conversation analytic study' (2024, European Journal of Oncology Nursing), 'Cultural Capability and Clinical Yarning Training: A Novel Approach to Improving Communication with Aboriginal Patients' (2025), 'Involving Nonspeaking and Speaking Children in Clinical Encounters: An Observational Study' (2025, Journal of Child Health Care), and 'Principles and practices of communicating with Aboriginal patients seeking mental health care' (2026). He supervises higher degree by research projects and teaches qualitative research methods, communication skills, and health psychology.