Trisha Dunning Scholarship ‘a gift’ for Sabine

The Trisha Dunning Scholarship recipient shares many values with the scholarship’s namesake, most notably her passion for nursing and patient advocacy.

Like Trisha did, Sabine also has a keen interest in diabetes. She received $40,000 to support her PhD studies into the effects of a low carbohydrate diet on heart failure symptoms and quality of life in patients with diabetic cardiomyopathy.

In Sabine's words

“My mum worked in aged care and made me do a holiday placement in a nursing home and I fell in love with nursing,” Sabine explains.

“What I love most about nursing is the patient contact and patient care.

“I am probably the biggest patient advocate that you will ever meet.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than when a patient thanks you for their care.

“It always blows me away how resilient patients are and what their stories are.”

Sabine’s PhD supervisor was Professor Andrea Driscoll of Austin Health.

“I wrote to Deakin Uni and I was lucky I found Professor Driscoll,” Sabine says.

“Her passion is heart failure, and my passion was always diabetes and glucose metabolism disorders, and the affect of diabetes on general health and metabolic health.

“We tried to find a project that suited both our interests and we heard that diets low in carbohydrate and refined sugars were beneficial for patients with glucose problems.

“We found later during the studies that it’s a very similar effect to SGLT2 inhibitors.”

"Thank you Trisha."

Sabine’s research involved a control group on the wholefood based, low fat, higher carbohydrate diet recommended by the Heart Foundation.

Meanwhile, the focus group used a traffic light system to eat a diet lower in carbohydrate and refined sugars.

“The diet was simple – go for green foods, take care with yellow foods and avoid red foods if you can,” Sabine explains.

“Patients didn’t have to measure or keep track; we kept it simple because people who live with diabetes have a high burden already.

“After three months we evaluated how they felt, and the outcomes for the focus group were better quality of life and reduced symptoms of heart failure and diabetes.”

Sabine says her research would not have been possible without the scholarship.

“The scholarship was a gift from God, it was absolutely amazing,” she says.

“Research costs a lot of money, especially the mail costs for the questionnaires and consent forms we sent back and forth.

“I had the world’s oldest computer, and I needed something so patients could see and hear me clearly as I couldn’t see patients face-to-face during the pandemic.

“I would not have been able to focus completely on my studies without the scholarship.

“Every time I bought something for the study, or I was able to publish a paper, I was thinking, ‘thank you Trisha.’

“I was proud to see my research published.

“The (scholarship) agreement was to show proof, and I was so happy each time my work was in a publication.”

Sabine was aware of Trisha’s legacy before she applied.

“I know that she was an amazing researcher, nurse and advocate for patients with diabetes,” she says.

“Later in life she was focused on quality of life and palliative care, and I know she sadly became sick herself.

“I hope she would have been pleased with the outcome of the study – the focus group interviews were very clear that patients had better quality of life.”

I had the best time, and I loved the patients so much.”

The Trisha Dunning research scholarships honour Emeritus Professor Trisha Dunning AM – a long-serving Board Director of Diabetes Victoria.

Trisha was a leading nurse, diabetes clinician, researcher and educator, with an international profile and reputation.

Trisha was acknowledged as an expert on diabetes management and care guidelines – particularly for older people and people receiving palliative or end-of-life care. Trisha was also passionate about diabetes language.