Keynote Speakers

Professor Gerald (Ged) Williams

RN, RM, Crit. Care Cert., Grad. Cert. PSM,
Bach. App. Sc. (Adv. Nursing), Grad. Cert Law,
LLM (QUT), MHA (UNSW), GAICD, FACN, FACHSM, FAAN.

Area Director of Nursing & Midwifery for South Metropolitan Health Service, Perth.
Adjunct Professor of Nursing, Griffith University, Curtin University. Australia.
Founding Chair/Past President, World Federation of Critical Care Nurses
Founding President, Australian College of Critical Care Nurses

Dr Deborough Macbeth

An Infection Control Professional since 1993, Deborough’s professional contributions include research, publication, and service through the Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control and, advisory positions with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare and the National Health and Medical Research Council. Deborough was awarded a Public Service Medal in 2021 for outstanding service to the community in health in Queensland including the management of responses to the SARS and Swine Flu pandemics.

Invited Speakers

Mark Aitkin

Mark Aitken is a Registered Nurse and the Stakeholder Engagement Manager with Nurse & Midwife Support, the national 24/7 support service for nurses midwives and students. Mark has worked in many and varied areas of nursing and midwifery, including general surgical and medical units, critical care, sexual and reproductive health, drug safety services, education, research, project management, maternity services and residential, community and specialty aged care services. Mark has held senior leadership positions within the aged care and health care sectors. Mark was part of the team that established Nurse & Midwife Support in 2017; being part of this important service has been a career highlight. Mark is passionate about the nursing and midwifery professions and supporting and mentoring students, early career nurses and midwives to ensure they have an exceptional start to their career.

Melissa Bantick

Melissa is a Clinical Nurse Educator with 20 years experience in clinical leadership and education in Intensive Care. She has also held project roles covering quality and patient safety, risk and trauma. Melissa believes that Clinical Nurse Educators are key to advancing the future of a resilient Critical Care Nursing Workforce and has a passion for supporting the transition of Nurses to Critical Care Practice.

Prof Melissa Bloomer

Melissa Bloomer is the Professor in Critical Care Nursing at Griffith University and the ICU at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Melissa is also the inaugural chair of the ACCCN End-of-Life Advisory Panel. Melissa’s research focuses on end-of-life care including end-of-life communication and decision-making, family care and participation, and nurse preparedness for dying and death.

Paula Duffy

Currently the Executive Director, Nursing, Midwifery and Patient Experience at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service and Adjunct Professor School of Nursing and Midwifery Griffith University Gold Coast.

Is an Associate Fellow and Certified Health Manager, Australasian College of Health Service Management.

Nadine Edwards

Nadine works in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. She has a keen interest in life long learning, and neurocritical care.

Alexandra Ferguson

Alexandra (Ali) Ferguson is an advanced physiotherapist who has worked in Paediatric Intensive Care for 17 years. Ali is the Allied Health lead for implementation of the PICUStars Liberation strategy at Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH) and led the development and implementation of the Early Mobilisation program in PICU at QCH. In 2018 Ali developed the Children’s Chelsea Critical Care Physical Assessment tool, which is a tool to measure physical function of children in critical care. Ali has a strong interest in education and coordinates the Statewide Simulated Learning In Paediatric Allied Health (SLiPAH) program. Ali is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Queensland, and the Allied Health representative for Oceania on the Board of Directors of the World Federation of Paediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS). She is also a member of the WFPICCS Allied Health, Education, World PICU Awareness Week and International Scientific committees. Ali has a keen interest in long-term outcome of PICU survivors and is a member of the PICOLO Network team.

Michelle Foster

Michelle Foster is currently the Acting Director of Nursing for Workforce Sustainability in the Office of the Chief Nurse and Midwifery. Michelle’s substantive position is the Nursing Director for Emergency Services at the Gold Coast Hospital Health Service overseeing the Gold Coast and Robina Emergency Departments, Southport Watchhouse and Beenleigh Watchhouse. Michelle has worked in the acute setting for just over 40 years with the majority of career being in Intensive Care. Michelle has been the co-author and author on over 20 research papers. Some of the highlights of Michelle’s career has been designing the ICU for GCUH, assisting with the Covid response at GCHHS and expanding nursing services into Logan District Watch house.

Carolyn Griffiths

Intensive Care Nurse of 30 years, flight nurse of 20 years, Reservist for 18 years, Clinical Nurse at Princess Alexandra Hospital. Hold RN, RM, Bachelor of Nursing, Master of Nursing, Critical Care, Grad Diploma Public Health.

Chloe Hall

Chloe is the Nurse Educator of the Children’s Critical Care Unit at the Gold Coast University Hospital. She describes herself as a country girl from Tasmania, that headed north to the Gold Coast via the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Working in the speciality for over a decade she has a passion for Children’s Intensive Care and providing specialist services close to home. As well as supporting mixed adult and paediatric hospitals to educate and promote the essential knowledge and skills involved in caring for sick children. Chloe runs interdisciplinary paediatric critical care courses throughout the year, where she enjoys sharing her passion with others and upskilling the future paediatric health professionals. With a Masters of Education and Paediatric Nursing she has developed a focus on supporting professional development, education and innovation. Recently the Clinical Lead and co-author of the Children’s Intensive Drug Directory (CIDD), Chloe and the team hope to provide a user-friendly resource, to reduce the cognitive burden for clinicians administering continuous infusions to critically unwell children.In her ‘spare’ time, you’ll find her with a beer in hand by the fire, camping or a four-wheel drive adventure with her fur babies (dogs) and soon to be husband.

Jane Harnischfeger

Jane has worked in PICU for over 25 years, and as a Nurse Educator for over 10 years. She holds a Master of Nursing (Clinical Teaching), Graduate Diploma in Paediatrics (Critical Care), and has led the development and implementation of PICU Liberation in Queensland.

Michelle Higgins

Nurse Unit Manager, Intensive Care Unit, Robina Hospital. I have worked for Gold Coast Health since 2010, in Intensive Care, and nearly 5 years in the private sector.

Melanie Jansen

Dr Melanie Jansen is a medical doctor completing advanced training in General Paediatrics and Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine. She is interested in everything to do with critical care but particularly congenital cardiac disease and trauma management. She is currently involved in research on blood coagulation in trauma. Since medical school, Melanie has had a strong interest in ethics and to pursue this, she completed a Master of Arts in Philosophy during her medical specialist training.

Fiona Jennings

Fiona Jennings is a Nurse Practitioner at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Brisbane, specialising in adult trauma care. Fiona joined the PA Trauma service team in 2013 and went on to complete her Masters (Nurse Practitioner) studies at QUT Brisbane in 2017, specialising in Trauma. Prior to that she was an Intensive Care Clinical Nurse for many years, enjoying all aspects of advanced nursing roles including CNC, educator and disaster facilitator.

A career highpoint has been following the advanced nursing career pathway to become the first grade 8 Nurse Practitioner in the division of surgery at the PA hospital.

She is a passionate advocate for improving patient centred care particularly through research, clinical education and mentorship.

Melissa Johnson

Melissa Johnson is the Nurse Educator for the Children’s Health Queensland Retrieval Service. She has over 22 years’ experience nationally and internationally as a registered nurse and has over 15 years’ experience in the field of Paediatric Intensive Care. Melissa has worked for the past 12 years as a paediatric retrieval nurse including road, rotary and fixed wing retrievals, as well as previous work in the coordination of aeromedical retrievals in Queensland. She has post graduate qualifications in Paediatric Intensive Care and is an instructor for the Paediatric Basic course in Australia. Melissa is an Associate Lecturer for James Cook University, specifically working with and advising on the Graduate Certificate in aeromedical retrieval. She is passionate about developing and training teams to deliver high quality care and optimise patient outcomes and experience.

Ainslie Kirkegaard

Ainslie Kirkegaard is the inaugural Coronial Registrar of the Coroners Court of Queensland. This is a unique judicial registrar role designed to triage deaths reported daily across Queensland.

Ainslie has held this role since early 2012 and previously held the positions of Counsel Assisting the Deputy State Coroner and Director, Office of the State Coroner. Ainslie became a part of the Queensland coronial system in 2008, bringing more than 15 years’ experience in policy and legislation development in the health, education, and justice portfolios, with specialist expertise in coronial and health regulatory law and policy.

Having been appointed as an Acting Magistrate since April 2015, Ainslie now also relieves as coroner when required.

Natasha Koroloff

Natasha works as a Clinical Nurse in the Adult Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with an interest in nursing the complexity of Major Adult Burn patients, assisting in staff education and being part of a dedicated Multidisciplinary Burn Team.

Isabella Lane

Isabella (Bella) Lane is a Physiotherapist and early researcher at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. Bella provides Cardiorespiratory and Critical Care education and training to new graduate and pre-registration physiotherapists. Bella is passionate about enhancing outcomes for those impacted by a spinal cord injury. Bella is currently the Principal Investigator for evaluating an extubation tool for patients suffering trauma to their cervical spinal cord. Bella’s vision is to contribute to research that is clinically meaningful for this complex patient population.

Bianca Lategan

Bianca Lategan is a registered nurse with extensive experience obtained in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. She is currently employed at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane and has a natural passion for teaching and leadership. Bianca holds an Honours degree in critical care and plans to complete her Masters degree in Nursing leadership and management.

Fiona Lambert

Fiona graduated nursing from QUT in 1999, and then started her graduate year at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in 2000. After completing her graduate year, she moved to Sydney and worked at Westmead Hospital for 3 years, where her interest in cardiac nursing started. She completed a Graduate Certificate in Cardiac Nursing through her time at Westmead, working throughout all the cardiac services, finishing in ICU. After leaving Sydney and heading back to Brisbane, she worked in the Cardiothoracic ICU at The Prince Charles Hospital. She spent a short few years in Wagga Wagga as a Nurse Co-ordinator at the Kapooka Army Barracks. She continues to work now at The Princes Charles Hospital as a Clinical Nurse in the ICU.

Angelly Martinez

Angelly is a senior intensivist at the Gold Coast university hospital, an organ donation specialist and supervisor of training for CICM.

Her career interests are quality assurance, patient safety and risk management. She is currently the clinical governance deputy director of her unit.

Mikheil Matcharadze

Mikheil holds post graduate qualifications in Critical Care Nursing Specialty and Digital Health & Health Informatics- Experienced and well-traveled Intensive Care Registered Nurse, with extensive history of working in the hospital & health care industry- Passionate about critical care nursing, health information technology use, research and education, and advancing healthcare through the smart use of health IT- Committed to improving Intensive Care Practices in low middle income countries- Hold strong belief that via smart adoption of health IT, it is possible to alleviate healthcare staff shortages and lead to increased workplace satisfaction- Specific health IT topics of interest include: electronic medical records (EMRs), tele-ICUs/e-ICUs, Digital Health and global healthcare, and health IT education/training- Currently working as a Senior Functional Support Analyst, proudly delivering the benefits of digitally enabled healthcare

Mark McLennan

Mark is the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Intensive Care for the Northern NSW Local Health DistrictHis clinical specialties include Adult Intensive Care and Cardiac nursing. His interests include education, quality improvement and staff development within Critical Care. His research is focused towards family satisfaction and the environment of the Intensive care towards improving patient, family and staff experience

Ingrid Monti

I am a Clinical Nurse in Paediatric Critical Care based on the Sunshine Coast. I have been in Paediatric ICU for over 10 years and have also worked in PACU and General paediatric.

Naomi Morick

Naomi is the Director of Nursing and Midwifery Education and Research in Alice Springs Hospital. Previously she worked as the Clinical Nurse Educator for 11 years. During this time she was part of the teams that redesigned the ICU relocation and the design of the new Research Education and Development building which opened in 2016 and 2017. She also worked as the Nursing Director for Critical Care, Perioperative Services and Patient Flow for 15 months.

Currently enrolled in a Masters of Research, Naomi also holds a Masters in Advanced Nursing Practice and Graduate Certificate in Critical Care.

Additionally, she facilitates ACCCN Adult and Paediatric ALS, NHET Sim, Central Australian Remote Emergency Program and Teaching on the Run Programs. Previously a facilitator with Flinders University for the Graduate Certificate in Intensive Care.

Naomi is passionate about learning. She believes learning should not always be easy, it needs to be repeated, the activities need to be appropriate to the learning, but should be a lot of fun.

Margaret Nicholson

Margaret is a Nurse Practitioner in ICU at Liverpool Hospital. Margaret has held numerous positions with over 30 years’ experience in intensive care including management and research, and over 36 years in nursing. Margaret is Co-Chair of the SWSLHD governance committee for Nurse Practitioners and has been in a TNP/NP role for the last 15 years.Margaret is part of the Medical Emergency Team, developing the Key Performance Indicators and training of staff attending emergency calls. Part of her role includes management of patients with tracheostomy tubes, she became involved in the training of nursing and medical staff in tracheostomy emergencies after working collaboratively with Intensivists, Anesthetists, ENT and Head and Neck surgeons and runs workshops on airway emergencies. Margaret is currently working with a National team to develop training for MET responders.She has been involved in several projects and has published on deterioration and observation and monitoring and is currently involved in writing a paper on deterioration and responders' roles in paediatric resuscitation. Margaret is currently Vice President Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (ACCCN) NSW Branch, the Chair of the National ACCCN Resuscitation Advisory panel, an executive committee member of the Australian Resuscitation Council and NSW Chair of the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners. Margaret is leading work with a team from the Agency for Clinical Innovation NSW to develop a booklet for patients and carers going home with a tracheostomy. Is part of the ACI Sepsis committee and the Deteriorating Patients Steering committee for CEC.

Lisa Nicotra

Lisa, who after 15 years in the workforce, decided on a career change and in 2008 entered the fabulous world of Nursing, graduating her Bachelor of Nursing degree with Distinction from QUT in 2010 and started her journey as a Graduate Nurse at The Prince Charles Hospital in the Adult Intensive Care Unit. During her Graduate year she completed her Transition to Practice Nurse Education Program in Intensive Care and has also completed her Graduate Certificate in Nursing (Intensive Care). Working at The Prince Charles Hospital for over 10 years, Lisa has had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles which have included the Cardiothoracic Research Nurse, publishing several case studies and journal articles with her team. She has also been the VAD Coordinator, Donation Specialist Nurse for Donatelife and a Transplant Retrieval Perfusion Nurse and Transplant Coordinator with the Heart & Lung Transplant Retrieval Services, whilst continuing her position as a Clinical Nurse in the Adult Intensive Care Unit at The Prince Charles Hospital.

Melissa Nott

Melissa commenced her career as a graduate nurse in 2014 and is now a clinical nurse at Gold Coast University Hospital Emergency Department. Melissa loves working in the fast-paced critical care environment and as a nursing student found her passion in paediatrics during her graduate year. For the last 2 years Melissa has been working in the Children’s Critical Care Unit at GCUH in a shared capacity with the ED. She spends half a roster period in each department. Being an ED and ICU nurse is unusual since the nature of the work in each area is quite different. However, Melissa loves the ability to switch hats and use the knowledge gained in each area to improve her nursing practice in both departments.

A/Prof Wendy Pollock

Dr Wendy Pollock is a critical care nurse and midwife with extensive clinical and education experience on acute illness associated with pregnancy. She has researched and published extensively on topics related to maternal critical illness and severe maternal morbidity. Wendy conducted her own business (maternalcriticalcare.com.au) and is presently an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University.

Cecile Prescott

Cecile Prescott is an occupational therapist (OT) who graduated from the University of Queensland with first class honours in 2000. She works at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) as the team leader for the OT Trauma Surgical service and has been the primary clinician in the intensive care unit (ICU) since 2008. She has a passion for critical care and has completed many quality projects to support and enhance patient care in this setting. She is also supporting OT’s across Australia in her role as co-convenor for the OT Australia ICU special interest group. Cecile has a keen interest and extensive experience working with spinal injury patients in ICU and across the acute services.

Dr Stephen Rashford

Dr Steve Rashford is a specialist emergency physician and the medical director of the Queensland Ambulance for the past 17 years. He has overseen immense changes in prehospital trauma care, including the use of prehospital anaesthesia, point of care ultrasound, resuscitative thoracotomy and the use of blood products in trauma resuscitation. Steve actively participates in all aspects of prehospital care, regularly out in the field with the paramedic teams providing a unique blend of system management and frontline patient care.

Shaun Robertson

Shaun Robertson is currently acting in the role of Nurse Educator at the Gold Coast University Hospital’s Emergency Department. In this role he co-leads the Nursing Education Team providing education and training to an emergency department roster of 377 nursing staff. Prior to this he served as a full time Nursing Officer with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and now serves as a specialist reservist.

Jorja Schmidt

Jorja is currently acting in a Clinical Nurse position at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit. In her 12 years of nursing, she has held a variety of diverse leadership positions within the Adult Intensive Care Unit, Medical Emergency Response Team and Hospital Coordinating. Her passion lies within the Paediatric Critical Care environment where she has been working for the last 3 years.

Kellie Sosnowski

Kellie has held the Nurse Unit Manager position at the Logan Hospital Intensive Care Unit since 2004. Kellie promotes a positive research culture and manages a robust research program within the ICU. She is currently undertaking her Ph.D. and is examining early rehabilitation protocols to reduce delirium and improve quality of life for ICU survivors.

Luke Shanahan

Director of Cardiac Investigations at Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service.Fellow of Heart Rhythm SocietyExam writing committee member for International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners.Steering committee member of Queensland Health Statewide Cardiac Clinical NetworkLecturer at Griffith and Bond Medical SchoolsOver 15 years experience working in Cardiac Investigations in both public and private sectors (Specialising in Cardiac Electrophysiology).

Vanitha Thandamparambil

Vanitha Thandamparambil RN/CN GCUH Post grad (KMC, INDIA), Post Grad Critical care (Hallam University, Sheffield, U.K) Cardiac pathway module (Griffith University)
Vanitha is a Clinical Nurse at Gold Coast University Hospital working between Intensive Care Unit and Children’s Critical Care Unit.Born and raised in India, Vanitha’s passion was to become a teacher or a social worker. Vanitha’s Dad tricked her into Nursing when she was 16 as he said Nursing was a kind of social work and will open the opportunities to travel.Moving to the UK for greater experience and skills, Vanitha completed her Post Graduate studies in Critical Care at Hallam University. Having initially worked on a surgical unit, Vanitha welcomed the challenge of moving into the Intensive care and has worked in the Critical Care speciality for the last 20 years.Vanitha has found the best of two worlds and works across both adult and paediatrics. She is passionate about the critical care experience and enjoys the acuity of ECMO and post operative cardiac patients whilst in AICU, and meanwhile the enjoyment of family centred care, baby cuddles and the satisfaction of seeing sick infants and children going home with their family.Being a mother of two teenage boys she describes herself as a nurse, mother psychologist, counsellor, physiotherapist, cleaner, Uber driver and the list goes on.

Shontelle Thomas

My name is Shontelle Thomas and I am the Donation Nurse Specialist for Queensland Children’s Hospital (QCH), a position I have held for the past 4 years. I have a post graduate certificate in Paediatric Intensive care.Prior to this position, I was working as a senior nurse at The Mater Children’s Hospital and QCH Paediatric Intensive Care Unit for 10 years. I began my career in 2005 at Starship Children’s Hospital in New Zealand as a Registered Nurse on the Neuro ward. I have always been passionate about family centred care and high quality, dignified end of life care.

Mr Hayden Wilson

RN/RM Flight Nurse
GCert EMNurs (QUT), BMid (Post-grad), BNurs (QUT), DipN

Hayden is a Registered Nurse / Registered Midwife working as a Flight Nurse with the Rockhampton Base of Royal Flying Doctors Service (Queensland Section). With nearly 5 years experience as a Flight Nurse, he is very excited to share some of his amazing experiences.

He has over 10 years experience as a nurse with a career focus in Emergency Nursing. He is also currently undertaking his final semester in the MNP program, with a focus in Emergency and Aeromedical Retrieval. Prior to working for the RFDS his nursing career was predominantly at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital including General Medicine, Neurosurgery, Emergency and Trauma.

Closing Plenary Highlight

Georgie Carroll

Born and raised in Manchester, England; now a proud Australian, Georgie Carroll is a comedian, nurse, wife and mother. Her bluntness and charm coupled with a razor-sharp wit, give her a broad- spectrum appeal that can be put into any room, with any line-up, and shine. She has been featured on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Oxfam Gala, and is a regular guest on Have You Been Paying Attention?, Hughesy We Have A Problem, Talkin’ Bout Your Generation, Celebrity Name Game and many more.

Important Dates
Registration Opens	Open
Abstract Submission Closes	12 August 2022
Notification of Abstract Acceptance	26 August 2022
Early Bird Registration Closes	26 August 2022