University of Melbourne
VIC Australia
Professor Denise Harrison is a Registered Nurse and Midwife and a Professor at the Department of Nursing, University of Melbourne, Australia. She leads the Be Sweet to Babies program of research which focuses on improving pain management for neonates, infants and young children in partnership with parents, clinicians, interdisciplinary researchers and students.
From 2008 to 2019 this work was conducted in Canada, firstly, during a postdoctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto, then while holding the Nursing Research Chair at the University of Ottawa and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). During this time her team co-produced a series of publicly accessible knowledge translation videos in multiple languages. These include: i) a parent-targeted newborn pain video, showing ease and effectiveness of performing heel lancing or venipuncture while babies are being breastfed, held skin-skin and given sucrose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L43y0H6XEH4&feature=youtu.be); ii) a series of vaccination videos showing breastfeeding and sucrose during vaccination, and iii), a clinician-targeted video demonstrating best ergonomics for performing heel lancing while babies are being breastfed or held skin-skin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpZNwP7bnkg&feature=youtu.be). Denise continues her work in Australia, in partnership with parent groups, including the Miracle Babies Foundation (https://www.miraclebabies.org.au/), professional organizations and healthcare organizations. She is a Faculty member of Pain in Child Health (PICH) and supports graduate students’ participation in this international research training consortium.