Ms Desley Simpson
B Occ Thy (UQ) Graduate Certificate Management (UQ) Masters Advanced Occ Thy MAOT (La Trobe), Graduate Certificate Tertiary Education (CQUniversity)Lecturer - Occupational Therapy
School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences
Building 1 - G.48
Desley is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy at the Bundaberg campus. She is a registered occupational therapist with over 25 years experience as a clinician, healthcare administrator and academic. She has worked extensively in a variety of rural, regional and metropolitan clinical settings, led multidisciplinary teams and managed large teams focusing on governance of health services. Her passion is mental health, paediatrics and community occupational therapy for ageing-in-place. In addition to her occupational therapy qualification, Desley has a Graduate Certificate in Management, Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education and a Masters in Advanced Occupational Therapy. She is a PhD candidate with CQUniversity. Her research interest focuses on resilience and wellbeing of students in the allied health professions.
Her service work focuses on engaging with the occupational therapy profession as well as fostering new and early career graduates. Desley is one of four national occupational therapy advisers to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), and provides supervision and mentoring to a range of clinicians and allied health assistants.
Desley's teaching practice focuses on presenting students with authentic real-world scenarios linking theory to practice. This is evident in the curriculum design of the accredited occupational therapy program as well as the teaching tools and assessment strategies she uses to encourage occupational therapy students to translate their knowledge to the clinical/professional context.
Universities Studied At
University of Queensland
- Bachelor of Occupational Therapy
- Graduate Certificate in Management
La Trobe University
- Master of Advanced Occupational Therapy
CQUniversity
- Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education
Universities Worked At
Central Queensland University (CQUniversity) 2014 to present
Awards
2021 CQ University Student Voice Commendations for On-campus Educator of the year 2021 for OCCT12006 (Understanding the Environment), OCCT12002 Occupational Justice Local and Global and OCCT14003 (Transition to Professional Practice)
2021 CQ University Silver Award for OCCT12066 Understanding the Environment
2020 CQUniversity Diamond Awards for OCCT12006 Understanding the Environment and OCCT14003 Transition to Professional Practice. Gold Award for OCCT13007 Enabling Mental Health. Bronze Award for OCCT12002 Occupational Justice Local and Global
2020 CQ University Student Voice Commendation On-campus Educator of the Year 2020 for OCCT12006 T1 2020 (Understanding the Environment) and OCCT14003 T2 2020 (Transition to Professional Practice)
2019 CQ University Student Voice commendation for unit coordination and delivery of OCCT13007 (Occupational Therapy Enabling Mental Health)
2018 Teaching award from the School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences for student satisfaction for OCCT13007 (Enabling Mental Health)
2017 CQ University Student Voice commendation for unit coordination and delivery of OCCT13007 (Occupational Therapy Enabling Mental Health)
2017 Finalist Opal Awards Excellence in Engagement - Engaged Education and Training 2016 CQ University Student Voice commendation for course coordination OCCT12002 and OCCT14003 (Occupational Justice and Transition to Professional Practice)
2015 CQ University Student Voice commendation for course coordination OCCT12006, OCCT12002 and OCCT13007 (Understanding the Environment, Occupational Justice and Enabling Mental Health)
2014 La Trobe University Janet Sloane Award – awarded for most outstanding occupational therapy student researching in areas relevant to activities of daily living, community health or ergonomics.
Professional Memberships
Desley is a member of Occupational Therapy Australia and registered occupational therapy practitioner with AHPRA.
Consultancy Work
Desley is one of four appointed occupational therapy clinical advisors with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Allied health and rehabilitation science - Allied health and rehabilitation science not elsewhere classified
Resilience
Allied health and rehabilitation science - Occupational therapy
Curricular interventions