Rate My Professor Sue Sharrad

Sue Sharrad is a Senior Lecturer in Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health at Adelaide University. With over 40 years of experience in nursing across a variety of settings and roles, her clinical areas of specialty include Intensive Care Nursing and Parkinson’s disease Nursing. She brings more than 10 years of academic experience, educating undergraduate and postgraduate students, coordinating courses, developing curricula, and providing research-informed clinical education. Sharrad serves as Academic Integrity Officer and is eligible to co-supervise Masters and PhD students. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at local, national, and international conferences, and supervised Masters students to completion.

Sue Sharrad’s research interests center on improving the lives of people with Parkinson’s disease, particularly those in regional, rural, and remote areas of Australia. Her work explores advancing pain care provision, healthcare providers’ perspectives on pain management for Parkinson’s patients, adequacy of care delivery, impacts of sex and gender on the disease, and pain experiences in young-onset Parkinson’s disease. She has secured grants exceeding $200,000 from the University of South Australia, The Hospital Research Foundation Group, and Pain Nurses Australia, including $132,324 in 2025 for evaluating the Parkinson’s Nurse Specialists Service. Sharrad co-supervises two PhD students on Parkinson’s projects, initiated a monthly nurse-led Parkinson’s disease clinic via the university health service providing face-to-face and telehealth consultations, and delivers educational sessions and seminars for clinicians, patients, and carers. Key publications include “The Topographical, Sensory, and Temporal Characteristics of Pain in Parkinson’s Disease: A Cross-Sectional Survey” (2026, Pain Practice), “Provision of pain care services for people with Parkinson's disease from the perspective of healthcare providers: A qualitative descriptive study” (2026, International Journal of Nursing Studies), “Perceptions of Clinical Academics and People With Parkinson’s Disease on Delivery of Regional Interdisciplinary Model of Care: Qualitative Descriptive Study” (2024, Journal of Primary Care and Community Health), and “Publish or perish: ensuring longevity in nurse education—Evaluation of a strategy to engage academics, students, and clinicians in publication activity” (2013, Journal of Professional Nursing). In 2021, she won the Tonnie Koenen Award for a paper significantly commenting on neuroscience nursing practice. Sharrad is a member of the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, Australasian Neuroscience Nurses Association, and the South Australian Department of Health and Wellbeing’s Human Research Ethics Committee.