Australia : Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) in Sound Practice

Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) in Sound Practice: Supporting Sustainable Careers in Orchestral Musicians through Occupational Health and Safety Initiatives

Two scholarships are being offered by the Discipline of Biomedical Science at the University of Sydney, the Australia Council for the Arts and eight major orchestras of Australia. This project will identify injury risk factors and predictors of injury, trial targeted interventions designed to better manage and prevent injury, and profile the psychological and physical health of professional musicians working within the eight premier state orchestras of Australia. The project aims to develop, implement and evaluate comprehensive multidisciplinary interventions to reduce the current unacceptably high rate of injury in this population and to support musicians in the management of psychological issues such as music performance anxiety and occupational stress. The project will provide an international benchmark for injury risk assessment and management within the orchestral workplace, assessment of physical and mental health of professional musicians and track injury trajectories, thereby facilitating the development of effective Occupational Health and Safety policies for professional Australian orchestral musicians at risk of a prematurely shortened career due to injury.

The successful PhD candidates would focus their research within one of the following areas:

1. Epidemiological research with a focus on injury surveillance
This project involves several components including a longitudinal population cohort study that will clarify causal factors in injury. The first stage will be collating baseline measures of current physical and psychological health status. The second stage involves a longitudinal study involving regular injury surveillance monitoring (Study 1) and identifying priority risk factors that will be targeted by specifically designed intervention trials (Study 2).

2. Clinical physiotherapy research on injury prevention and management intervention trials
By analyzing the results from stage 1 and 2, intervention trials will be designed and run to identify effective injury prevention and management strategies in professional orchestral musicians and to evaluate the short and long term effects of these interventions.

3. Qualitative and clinical psychology research with a focus on music performance anxiety
Implement intervention trials aiming to target musicians who suffer high levels of music performance anxiety and investigate other psychosocial risk factors such as occupational stress. Using the results of the baseline survey, the ongoing surveillance data in the psychosocial area and existing literature, interventions with a selection of professional musicians will be developed, implemented and evaluated.

The successful applicant will have qualifications and experience in any of the following: physiotherapy, psychology, epidemiology and public health; occupational medicine or equivalent. They will ideally have experience in one or more of the following areas: survey design and implementation; injury surveillance and injury management, and will have knowledge of applied univariate and multivariate statistics to analyse complex sets of data.

Applicants must have a First Class Honours degree or equivalent, or a Masters Degree, or have extensive clinical experience in an appropriate discipline. Candidates should possess excellent oral and written communication skills, excellent clinical skills or an excellent undergraduate record of achievement, with demonstrated competencies in working effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary team. Also considered are publications, demonstrated research skills and relevant work experience. Applications are open to local and international students, however the scholarship does not cover any tuition fees payable by international students. Three years for full-time PhD students.

Direct queries to Dr Bronwen Ackermann, School of Medical Sciences, Room L111 Cumberland Campus C42, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe NSW 2141 (Phone: 02 9531 9472; Fax: 02 9531 9520; Email:b.ackermann@usyd.edu.au ).

Application Guide: Applications should include a curriculum vitae, an academic transcript, and the names and contact details of two referees. A statement of the broad area of your research interest should also be included. Please send applications to Mrs Pauline Zahara, Project Manager, Discipline of Biomedical Science, School of Medical Sciences, Room L229 Cumberland Campus C42, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe NSW 2141 (Phone: 02 9036 7423; Fax: 02 9351 9520; Email: see below).
Email Address: p.zahara@usyd.edu.au:

Closing Date: 24 August 2009