Bridget Hamilton

Associate Professor Bridget Hamilton is the Director of the Centre for Mental Health Nursing in the Department of Nursing, Melbourne School of Health Sciences, within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She holds a Bachelor of Nursing (Honours) and a PhD from the University of Melbourne, with her doctoral research examining everyday nursing practices completed between 2004 and 2008. With more than 30 years of experience as a registered mental health nurse in public sector services, she has worked across clinical, managerial, educational, and research roles. Since 2004, Hamilton has served as Clinical Nurse Consultant in Mental Health at St Vincent's Health Australia, and from 2009 in the Adult Mental Health Service at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, where she leads initiatives to enhance recovery orientation and reduce reliance on coercive practices such as seclusion. Appointed Associate Professor and Director of the Centre in 2016, she oversees a team of clinical nurse academics and consumer academics, co-designing research and teaching.

Hamilton's academic interests focus on service users' and staff experiences of nursing practices in public mental health settings, including close observations, brief interactions, seclusion events, case management, and goal setting. Her research employs observational fieldwork, interviews, surveys, and routine data analysis to advance recovery-oriented practices, Safewards implementation to minimize conflict and containment, clinical supervision for mental health nurses, crisis care in emergency departments and alternatives, advance care planning, and foster care dynamics. She teaches mental health practice and research methods. Hamilton's scholarship is evidenced by over 4,960 citations and an h-index of 36 on Google Scholar. Key publications include 'Rethinking nurses’ observations: Psychiatric nursing skills and invisibility in an acute inpatient setting' (2007), 'Troubling ‘insight’: Power and possibilities in mental health care' (2006), 'Factors influencing engagement with case managers: Perspectives of young people with a diagnosis of first episode psychosis' (2015), the 'Safewards Victorian Trial Final Evaluation Report' (2016), and 'Mental Health Nurses' Perception of Clinical Supervision Implementation Mapped Against a Program Logic: A Survey Study' (2025). Her contributions include the NHMRC NICS Fellowship, University of Melbourne Engagement Grant, and VMIAC Inaugural Ally of the Year Award. She has given keynotes on Safewards evidence and PARC evaluations.