Researcher biography

Dr Adrienne Young is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian (AdvAPD), and currently holds positions at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (Research Coordinator, Nutrition and Dietetics), and University of Queensland (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research).

Her research on improving nutritional intake of older medical inpatients has been of interest nationally and internationally, with Adrienne awarded the Research in Practice award at the national Dietitians Association of Australia conferences in 2021 and 2019, Young Achiever Award by the Dietitians Association of Australia in 2014 and New Researcher Award at the International Congress of Dietetics in 2012. Adrienne continues to research in the area of malnutrition in older people, with recent studies focused on nutrition intervention in combination with delirium and functional decline prevention strategies in the inpatient setting, as well as nutrition intervention in the post-discharge period for recently discharged elders. Adrienne has recently been awarded the Barbara Chester Memorial Award, a prestigious award recognising her contribution to dietetics in Queensland.

Adrienne has developing experience with consumer engagement in research and health service improvement, and is regularly asked to speak on this topic at conferences, forums and panel discussions. She has recently co-led the development of a co-design framework in Metro North Health, which is available online at https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/get-involved/co-design.

Adrienne has expertise in knowledge translation and implementation science, and has facilitated workshops on this topic at QUT, University of Adelaide and Metro North HHS within a team of local and international experts. She is a founding member of the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice initiative, which aims to increase knowledge translation capacity for health professionals. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice

As a passionate advocate for the training and career pathways for clinician-scientists, she has supervised 3 PhDs to completion, and is currently supervising 6 research higher degree candidates (54of whom are embedded health professionals within the health system), 2 post-doctoral research fellow and numerous dietetics research honours students.