Rate My Professor Shep Chidarikire

Dr Shep Chidarikire is a Senior Lecturer in Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. An experienced mental health nursing academic and clinician with over 10 years of teaching experience, he initially trained as a primary school teacher in his native Zimbabwe before qualifying as a UK-trained mental health nurse. His academic background includes a PhD in Nursing from the University of Tasmania awarded in 2021, focusing on the experiences and quality of life of people living with schizophrenia in Harare, Zimbabwe, through focused ethnography. He also holds a Master of Nursing (Nurse Practitioner) from La Trobe University and a Bachelor of Health Science (Nursing) from Charles Sturt University. Passionate about the intersections of culture, language, and mental health, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, his research emphasizes idioms of distress, faith, spirituality, and transcultural mental health nursing. Research interests include ethnography, qualitative methods, schizophrenia, and spiritual care in nursing education.

Dr Chidarikire's career includes roles at the University of Tasmania, Hunter Medical Research Institute as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, and current responsibilities as Program Convenor for the Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Nursing and involvement in the Master of Mental Health Nursing. He was elected to the University of Newcastle Academic Senate and has secured over $800,000 in competitive grant funding. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), he received a Teaching Merit Certificate from the University of Tasmania in 2023. Key publications include 'Ethnographic Insights into the Quality of Life and Experiences of People Living with Schizophrenia in Harare, Zimbabwe' (Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2020), 'Treatments for people living with schizophrenia in Sub-Saharan Africa: an adapted realist review' (International Nursing Review, 2018), 'An ethnographic study of schizophrenia in Zimbabwe: The role of culture, faith, and religion' (Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 2020), 'Bridging the gap: Normalising spiritual care in undergraduate nursing education: A review of qualitative research' (Nurse Education in Practice, 2025), and 'Mental health placements for health and social care students: A realist synthesis' (Medical Education, 2026). He has translated the WHO Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire into Shona, enhancing culturally sensitive research tools. His work contributes to better mental health outcomes for diverse populations.