Dr Mark De Souza
Biodiversity and health in healthcare settings
Mark is a practising emergency physician whose PhD research explores how the workplace experience of biodiversity within hospital greenspace may support the wellbeing of health professionals. The project responds to the high rates of burnout in hospital clinicians in an era marked by rising demand on health services, climate change and vanishing urban biodiversity.
The project emerged from a hospital greening project in northern Australia that fosters human-nature contact through connectivity with local nature reserves, mitigates urban heat and integrates plant species of Indigenous cultural significance. Mark's main PhD study is a national survey of Australian hospital clinicians which examines the availability of nature and greenspace experiences in an near hospital precincts. The study explores enablers and barriers to greenspace access and the perceived impacts of biodiversity experiences on clinician wellbeing, work capacity and job satisfaction. The project seeks to make recommendations for better integrating experiences of biodiversity in and near hospitals.
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Thesis
The experience of biodiversity in hospital settings and its influence on wellbeing in nursing and medical staff
The project examines the availability of hospital greenspace, enablers and barriers to its access, and the pathways by which experiences of workplace biodiversity impact staff wellbeing and job satisfaction. The research findings will be used to make recommendations for better integrating nature in hospital settings to promote the wellbeing of all campus users, while mitigating burnout and attrition of frontline hospital staff.
Supervisors
- A/Professor Amy Hahs, Associate Professor in Urban Horticulture, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
- Professor Kathryn Williams, Professor (Environmental Psychology), School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
- A/Professor Brendan Cullen, Associate Professor-Sus. Agr. (Pasture Systems), School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
- Dr Sara Barron, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science