Janice Taylor’s early physiotherapy career was varied, interspersed with overseas travel during which she worked as a physiotherapist in London and Scotland. On her return to Australia, Janice was interested in working with older people so completed a part-time Masters in Gerontology at La Trobe University. In 2006 she obtained a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and applied what she learnt to practice, clinical supervision and managerial roles in community based rehabilitation and residential aged care.
In 2009, Janice was awarded a Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development Fellowship. Janice completed her PhD in 2014, entitled 'A Collaborative and Integrated Approach to Resident Mobility.' This program of exploratory qualitative research pointed to the need for improvements in residential aged care staff’s provision of mobility care; staff needed to not only ensure safety, but also to optimise residents’ mobility and apply person-centred approaches during mobility care. The research suggested that collaborative approaches to learning, and culture change would be required to gain and sustain mobility care improvements—didactic training models are less successful in securing staff behaviour change than interactive models and facility cultures based on relationships are more likely to support practice change.