Associate Professor Olivia Cook

PhD, BN(Hons), RN

Associate Professor Olivia Cook is a registered nurse, educator and researcher with 20+ years experience in the fields of cancer nursing and women’s health. In July 2025, Olivia commenced a brand new joint appointment as Associate Professor of Cancer Care Nursing at Bayside Health, Alfred and Monash University. This role is focused on building a nurse-led research program in cancer care and enabling nurse engagement in research. Prior to this appointment, Olivia was the Head of Nurse Education and Research at the McGrath Foundation, supporting the 300+ McGrath Cancer Care Nurses located across Australia. In this role she was a key leader in the expansion of the McGrath Foundation as a provider of breast cancer nursing services to a provider of nursing services across all cancer types.

Olivia’s research focuses on cancer nurse education, nurse-led interventions and the specialist cancer nursing workforce and how these each contribute to improving equitable cancer care. She contributes actively to the Australian cancer community through multidisciplinary collaborations, specialist practice networks and committee memberships, post-graduate student supervision, regular journal reviewing and is considered an expert on the value and impact of specialist cancer nursing roles.

Research interests

• Priority populations and equitable cancer care
• Specialist cancer nursing
• Cancer nursing workforce
• Cancer nursing education
• Patient reported outcomes and experience measures

Research methodologies

• Mixed methods
• Qualitative thematic and content analysis
• Instrument design and psychometric testing
• Survey methodologies

Research projects 

• Refer to Olivia's researcher profile

• Cancer Nurses Society of Australia - Research Standing Committee Member 2019-2023
• CNSA Gynaecological Oncology Special Interest Group – Secretary 2018- 2023
• Clinical Oncology Society of Australia PROs Working Group - Member 2022-2023
• Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium – Advisory Committee Member 2020
• Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium – Executive Committee Member 2019
• Monash University Faculty of Medicine ECR Research Committee – Deputy Chair 2019-2021
• Monash University Faculty of Medicine 2021 ECR Symposium Committee – Chair 2020-2021
• Monash Nursing and Midwifery – Research Committee Member 2018-2021

• Peer reviewer for: Journal of Global Oncology; Collegian; European Journal of Oncology Nursing; Medical Anthropology; Asia Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing; BMC Cancer views

• Cancer Nurses Society of Australia - Member 2015-current
• Australia and New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group - Member 2015-current
• Clinical Oncology Society of Australia - Member 2021-current
• Australian College of Nursing – Member 1999-current
• Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation – Member 1999-current
• Victorian COVID-19 Cancer Network (VCCN) Breast Advisory Group – Member 2020-2022
• The Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) – Member 2018-current
• Victorian Cancer Survivorship Community of Practice 2018-2021

• Refer to Olivia's researcher profile and Google Scholar profile