Rate My Professor Kirsty Pope

Kirsty Pope serves as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Primary and Allied Health Care within Monash University’s Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. She earned her BSc (Hons) in Occupational Therapy from Oxford Brookes University in the UK in 1994, an MSc in Family and Individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy of Psychosis from the University of Manchester in 2001, a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Salford in 2012, and a Doctorate by Research from Monash University’s Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Education Portfolio. Pope’s career began as an occupational therapist in adult mental health settings, including forensic and community care. In 2002, she joined the University of Salford as a lecturer on the BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy and MSc Advanced Occupational Therapy programmes. She joined Monash University’s Department of Occupational Therapy as a lecturer in September 2014, where she teaches on the Master of Occupational Therapy Practice programme and coordinates participatory community project placements.

Pope’s research specializations include occupational therapy, education research, work-integrated learning, healthcare student education, mental health, and homelessness. She has contributed to projects such as problem-based and scenario-based learning in the occupational therapy curriculum with Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2020–2021), innovative workforce growth in thin markets piloting mixed digital and face-to-face training for NDIS participants in Tasmania (2020–2021), developing effective feedback processes for health professional students (2018–2019), and building learning resources for collaborative care curricula (2017–2018). Key publications include “Models of pre-registration student supervision in allied health: a scoping review” (Pope, Barclay, Dixon, Kent, 2023, Focus on Health Professional Education), “The Human Library and the development of cultural awareness and sensitivity in occupational therapy students: a mixed methods study” (Chu, Pope, Hewlin-Vita, 2024), “How student placements can positively contribute to workforce development” (Pope, Barclay, Kent, 2024), “Time use of patients in a secure forensic hospital: A mixed methods study” (Lewis, Pope, Mynard, 2024, Australian Occupational Therapy Journal), and “‘It Can Be Quite Daunting’: Promoting Mental Health Service Use for Vulnerable Young People” (Gu, Kehoe, Pope, Hopkins, 2025, Healthcare). She serves as a peer reviewer for Medical Teacher (since 2023) and Australian Occupational Therapy Journal (since 2021). Pope has received team awards including the Dean’s Award for Excellence - Programs that Enhance Learning (2023, 2024), Programs that Enhance Learning Award (2022), and School of Primary and Allied Health Care Academic Excellence Awards (2017, 2021).