Rate My Professor Jenny Mackney

Dr Jenny Mackney is a Conjoint Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Health Sciences, part of the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from Curtin University, Bachelor of Applied Science in Physiotherapy from the University of Sydney, and Master of Clinical Education from the University of New South Wales. Currently serving as a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist in Perioperative medicine and Respiratory Scientist at John Hunter Hospital, she contributed to the core clinical team that established the laboratory-based cardiopulmonary exercise testing service for preoperative risk stratification and optimization for patients undergoing major high-risk surgery. As the lead for prehabilitation services in the Hunter New England Local Health District, her work focuses on enhancing patient outcomes through perioperative optimization.

Since the inception of the University of Newcastle's Bachelor of Physiotherapy program, Mackney has engaged in various educational roles, including student educator, lecturer, conjoint lecturer, and honorary lecturer. Her research interests encompass cardiorespiratory physiotherapy, critical care, exercise physiology, prehabilitation, and rehabilitation. She has obtained 15 grants amounting to $1,314,314, notably leading the 2025 Cancer Institute NSW-funded project "Improving equity of access to prehabilitation services in regional and rural NSW" ($807,062) and participating as an investigator in the BOOST Trial ($301,556). Key publications include "Survivors of Acute Lung Injury Have Greater Impairments in Strength and Exercise Capacity Than Survivors of Other Critical Illnesses as Measured Shortly After ICU Discharge" in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine (2022), "Abnormal Exercise Responses in Survivors of Acute Lung Injury During Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing: An Observational Study" in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention (2019), "Discordance Between Distance Ambulated as Part of Usual Care and Functional Exercise Capacity in Survivors of Critical Illness Upon Intensive Care Discharge: Observational Study" in Physical Therapy (2015), and "Does exercise training change physical activity in people with COPD? A systematic review and meta-analysis" in Chronic Respiratory Disease (2012). Additionally, she has supervised the completion of 13 honours theses.