Rate My Professor Kirsty Baker

Mrs. Kirsty Baker is a Lecturer in Nursing at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health, Adelaide University. She commenced teaching mental health nursing at the University of South Australia School of Nursing and Midwifery in 2012, a position that continues under Adelaide University following the institutional transition. Baker delivers instruction in the Bachelor of Nursing program and serves as Course Coordinator for postgraduate mental health courses, such as NURS 5071 Perspectives in Mental Health Practice, NURS 5159 Theoretical Approaches to Mental Health Practice, NURS 2041 Mental Health Nursing, and NURS 1072 Foundations of Nursing Practice. With clinical expertise as a Mental Health Nurse since 2004, she has worked in adult crisis mental health teams, including the Royal Adelaide Hospital Emergency Department and Eastern ACIS, where she conducts emergency mental health assessments and provides therapeutic nursing care to consumers and their families during crises and recovery.

Baker's research specializes in first episode psychosis and the therapeutic relationship, focusing on consumers' lived experiences to inform how mental health nurses can better understand and support their needs. She is a member of the Mental Health and Substance Use Research Group. Her publications feature book chapters in N. Procter's Mental Health: A Person-centred Approach, including 'Assessment practices and processes in mental health' (2022, co-authored with M. Loughhead, K. Rhodes, D. Macedo), 'Mental illness and narratives of experience' (2022, co-authored with N. Procter, M. Ferguson, L. Hodge, D. Macedo, M. Loughhead), and 'Introduction to mental health and mental illness: human connectedness and the collaborative consumer narrative' (2022, 2017, 2013 editions). Other works include 'Mental health within society and societies' in M. Steen and M. Thomas's Mental health across the lifespan (2016), the 'Mental health safety and quality engagement guide' report (2020, co-authored with M. Ferguson, M. Loughhead, N. Procter), and 'Person-centred and consumer directed mental health care: transforming care experiences' (2023, co-authored with M. Loughhead et al.).