Rate My Professor Heather Grimes

Dr. Heather Grimes serves as Senior Lecturer in Nursing and Midwifery within the College of Healthcare Sciences at James Cook University. Holding a Doctor of Philosophy, she is the Course Coordinator and Academic Advisor for the Bachelor of Nursing Science/Bachelor of Midwifery (BNSc/BMid) program. In this capacity, she oversees student support, professional experience placements, and continuity of care experiences for midwifery students in the Townsville region. She also contributes to teaching in subjects such as NS5201 and participates as a secondary advisor in the university's research advisor register. Her administrative roles include facilitating access to academic advising and coordinating midwifery-specific resources for students across JCU campuses.

Dr. Grimes' research centers on perinatal health, with a focus on interventions to support new mothers, including telephone-based peer support for preventing postnatal depression and promoting breastfeeding. She has co-authored several impactful publications, including 'Preventing postnatal depression in new mothers using telephone peer support: protocol for the DAISY (Depression and AnxIety peer Support studY) multi-centre randomised controlled trial' (BMJ Open, 2024, with Touran Shafiei et al.); 'The PRIMROSE Project: What is 'physiological birth'? A quantitative approach to the perceptions of the Australian population' (Midwifery, 2025, with Brooke I. Henshall et al.); 'What is ‘physiological birth’? A scoping review of the perspectives of women and care providers' (Midwifery, 2024, with Brooke I. Henshall et al.); 'Is proactive telephone-based breastfeeding peer support a cost-effective intervention? A within-trial cost-effectiveness analysis of the 'Ringing Up about Breastfeeding earlY' (RUBY) randomised controlled trial' (BMJ Open, 2023, with Fiona E. McLardie-Hore et al.); 'Implementing a successful proactive telephone breastfeeding peer support intervention: volunteer recruitment, training, and intervention delivery in the RUBY randomised controlled trial' (International Breastfeeding Journal, 2021, with Helen L. McLachlan et al.); and 'Volunteers’ experiences of providing telephone-based breast-feeding peer support in the RUBY randomised controlled trial' (Public Health Nutrition, 2020, with Touran Shafiei et al.). Her scholarship has accumulated approximately 379 citations. Dr. Grimes has been recognized with the Inclusive Practice Award from JCU's College of Healthcare Sciences for innovative support of students with disabilities, injuries, or health conditions, and was part of a team honored in the 2024 Celebrating Excellence in Learning and Teaching awards.