KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Associate Professor Bernie Bissett

Associate Professor Bernie Bissett is an ICU physiotherapist with more than 20 years’ experience in Sydney, London and Canberra. Bernie’s research focuses on early rehabilitation of ICU patients, particular respiratory muscle strengthening and recovery from prolonged ventilation. Bernie currently leads the Physiotherapy team at the University of Canberra and her research is based at Canberra Hospital. Bernie is passionate about listening to patients and improving their recovery journey through evidence-based care.

Adjunct Professor (Practice) Alison McMillan

Alison McMillan commenced as the Australian Government Department of Health’s Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer in November 2019.Alison is a Registered Nurse with a Critical Care Nursing Certificate, a Bachelor Degree in Education, a Master of Business Administration and was awarded a National Emergency Medal in recognition of service following the 2009 Victorian Bushfires.

She is an experienced executive manager with more than 30 years’ experience across the public health system. Alison has held senior executive roles in government and health services within Victoria including the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer and Director of Quality, Safety and Patient Experience.Alison is a member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee contributing to key advice provided to the National Cabinet during the COVID-19 pandemic and, as a member of the Infection Control Expert Group providing advice and information on best practice on infection prevention and control in the community, hospitals, aged care, schools and community sport.Alison has been a part of a team providing communication to the community, which is clear, honest, and compassionate.

In mid-February, Alison was the nurse team leader for an Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) deployed to repatriate Australian’s from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship in Japan.Alison has collaborated with state and territory Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers and other key stakeholders including the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, Australian College of Nursing, Australian College of Midwives and Australian College of Critical Care Nurses to ensure sufficient nursing and midwifery capability and capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Miller

Lieutenant Commander Miller has served within both the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Navy. He has held positions including Senior Nursing Officer for Tactical Trauma Teams, Head of Department of Australia’s Maritime Emergency / Resuscitation Capability and as the Navy’s Nurse Educator. He has deployed on multiple military operations within both the Middle East and Australia. In 2019, he held the position as Officer in Command of the Emergency Department and Commander Nursing within the military hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. In Mid-2020, he was deployed to Victoria as Officer Commanding the Military Aged Care Response during OPERATION COVID19 ASSIST.

Dr Nhi Nguyen

Dr Nhi Nguyen is an intensive care specialist from Nepean Hospital. She is the Clinical Director of Intensive Care NSW at the Agency of Clinical Innovation. Following the establishment of the State Health Emergency Operations Centre (SHEOC), Nhi was the clinical advisor for the Intensive Care Operations team. She will provide insight into the activities which supported preparing NSW hospitals for COVID-19 Pandemic and lessons learnt along the way.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Jo Buttery

I have been a Registered Nurse since completing my training in 1990 and I started working in Intensive Care Units in 1995. During my career it has been my privilege to have worked in multiple centres throughout South Australia, the UK and NSW and I am now one of the ANUM’s in the Royal Adelaide Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (RAHICU). I have held many roles over the years including being a Retrieval Nurse, an ICU Educator and a Nurse Manager.I have completed a Masters in Critical Care Practice, am an accredited ALS 1 teacher and am currently part of the faculty developing a South Australian course for ECMO training. I have spent my career developing the skills and knowledge to maintain and enhance my practice and I still find caring for these critically ill patients both challenging and rewarding. I also have a strong interest in the post intensive care experience of our patients and have been a leader within the ‘Survive and Thrive’ support group at the RAHICU.As part of my role as a senior clinician, educator, and leader in the ICU environment, I am passionate about enhancing the skills and knowledge of the nurses I now support within the workplace. I find it extremely rewarding to see junior nurses develop into excellent clinicians with my help.

Ben Claughton

Ben has a background in Critical Care Nursing and as an Intensive Care Paramedic. He is currently the Advanced Life Support Coordinator at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce and works on road as a Paramedic for the ACT Ambulance Service. Ben is passionate about education and is also a lecturer at the Australian Catholic University for the Bachelor of Nursing and Paramedicine program. Ben has a keen interest in resuscitation medicine and sits on the ACT branch of the Australian Resuscitation Council.

Jenny Darvas

Jennifer Darvas is a registered nurse who has worked in the PICU at Children’s Hospital Westmead for the past 9 years. She currently combines roles as both a clinical PICU nurse and research nurse with Kids Critical Care Research (KCCR). Prior to this, Jennifer worked in adult critical care for many years.

She has several post graduate educational qualifications, most interestingly a Diploma of Tropical Nursing from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the UK.

Jennifer has spent many months over the last decade volunteering with Mercy Ships in several West African nations.

Erin Gilligan

Erin Graduated as a Registered Nurse from University of Canberra in 2005. After completing her new Graduate program at The Canberra Hospital followed by some overseas travel she finally landed in the Intensive Care Unit back at Canberra Hospital in 2007. Erin completed a graduate certificate in Critical Care Nursing and participated in numerous roles within the unit for 12 years before transferring to the ACT Trauma Service as a Trauma Case Manager in 2019 and in January 2021 commenced the role of Acting Trauma Coordinator.

Dr Emily Granger

Dr Emily Granger is one of Australia’s pioneering Cardiothoracic and Heart Lung Transplant surgeons, consulting at the St Vincent’s Hospital at Darlinghurst. She has performed over 3500 general cardiothoracic operations and over 150 heart and lung transplants.

Dr Emily Granger completed her medical degree at the University of Queensland in 1997 and her surgical fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2006. She has been involved with the NSW Organ Tissue Donation Service and Deceased Donor Organ Procurement Surgeon Committee since 2007. She is the Vice President of the Australia New Zealand Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery. In July 2014, Emily played a major role in the world’s first successful ‘donated after circulatory death’ heart transplant, giving greater hope to heart failure patients around the world. The team has since performed over 50 DCD heart transplants.

Emily is also passionate about inspiring and mentoring the next generation of medical students. She continues to teach junior doctors and is active with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons as an EMST and CCRISP instructor, and Fellowship Examiner. Her areas of interest include adult cardiac and thoracic surgery, surgery for lung cancer, heart lung transplantation, ECMO and TAVI procedures.

Danica Hansen

Danica is a Clinical Nurse Educator from Nepean Hospital. At the height of the pandemic she was relieving as Nurse Educator in the ICU and tasked with PPE and ventilation training and interdepartmental simulation.

Naturally an artistic person, Danica appreciates the role that education plays in shaping and advancing nursing knowledge and performance. A creature of face-to-face learning and recently starved of conference activity, Danica is excited to see the AEM back on the agenda.

Grainne Hughes

Originally from Ireland, Grainne studied in the UK and trained in the NHS. A planned one year trip to Australia has turned into Grainne now being in Australia for the past eight years. Six of these years were spent working in ICU and the last 18 months in The Alfred ICU as the senior pharmacist before returning to ACT to resume a more normal life!

Dr Samantha Jakimowicz

Dr Samantha Jakimowicz is a Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. She develops postgraduate and specialty online learning resources and coordinates clinical and leadership subjects. Samantha is a Registered Nurse with clinical and research experience in intensive care. Samantha’s research interests and expertise lie with compassion, empathy, patient experience and healthcare professional wellbeing. She has published extensively on these topics Samantha is leading further research into compassionate leadership and healthcare professional well-being within some Australian healthcare facilities.

Janet Jenista

Janet Jenista is an Emergency Nurse with a wealth of educational experience in both the USA and the Australian context. Janet was previously a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canberra and a Clinical Educator at Calvary Health Care-ACT. She currently works for Edvoke Education teaching a wide range of courses. Janet’s special interest is in modernising education, to include student engagement, flipped classroom and gamification.

Rachel Longhurst

Rachel is the clinical nurse educator for intensive and coronary care at the Calvary Public Hospital in Bruce, ACT and a sessional contractor to Griffith University in QLD. Rachel has a Masters in Critical Care Nursing and is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Health Professional Education. She sits on the NSW/ACT ACCCN committee and the ACCCN National Events Committee, is a qualified ARC ALS 1 instructor and course director, and chair of the recognising and responding to deterioration standard committee at Calvary. Rachel is passionate about ensuring critical care nurses have continued access to high quality education and professional development, especially within the clinical environment.

Professor Imogen Mitchell

Professor Imogen Mitchell, Dean of Medicine at the ANU Medical School but since March 2020 has been seconded to be the Clinical Director of the ACT COVID-19 Response. She is also a Senior Intensive Care Specialist at the Canberra Hospital. Imogen graduated from University of London and undertook her physician’s training in the UK before moving to Australia to complete her specialist training in intensive care. Appointed initially as an intensive care specialist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, she moved to the Canberra Hospital in 1999 to take up the Directorship of the Intensive Care Unit. In 2013 she was awarded a Harkness Fellowship in Health Policy and Practice, which was spent Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Since 2017, she has been the Dean of Medicine at the ANU Medical School and continues to practise intensive care.

Dr Simon Robertson

Simon Robertson is a senior specialist at Canberra hospital who divides his time between the intensive care unit, the operating theatres and the retrieval service. His interests include trauma and paediatrics.

Simon hopes to share some strongly held views about ventilatory modes and strategies, controversial though they may be.

Amy Rogers

Amy Rogers completed her nursing training at Flinders University of South Australia. She commenced her Graduate Nurse Program at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1996. She then furthered her studies by completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Clinical Nursing (Cardiothoracic) in 1998 and remains passionate about the care of the Cardiothoracic patient. Amy is a keen leader of the Cardiac Special Interest Group in the Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit with a strong interest in resuscitation after cardiac surgery. More recently Amy has been made the Nursing Representative on the steering committee for Cardiothoracic Advanced Life Support for Australia and New Zealand (CALS-ANZ) In 2020 Amy was awarded The RMH Nurse of the Year Leadership Award for her commitment to teaching CALS Nationally and Internationally. She continues to work as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the bedside in ICU caring for some of Melbourne’s most critically ill patients.

Sharon-Ann Shunker

Sharon has been in nursing for many years with a primary interest in critical care nursing and worked in many different countries. She has enjoyed a variety of roles inside and outside the Public Hospital sector such as working at NAMO to develop the Transition to Practice Intensive Care Nursing Program, eHealth Training Specialist for the eRIC, BTF Project Officer, Organ and Tissue Donation CNC and lecturer for postgraduate University courses. She has co-authored the Critical Care Chapter in the new textbook “Nursing in Australia, Contemporary Professional and Practice Insights”. She currently works as the Clinical Nurse Consultant for ICU in Liverpool Hospital in Sydney. She is passionate about nursing and interested in always seeking to improving practice. She has completed a Masters of Public Health and has a keen interest in promoting education and empowerment of nurses to deliver safe patient care. Her areas of research interest include ICU Patient Diaries and Physical Activity and Movement of the ICU patient.

Michelle Spence

Michelle commenced her nursing career at Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit in 1997 where she completed the Post Graduate Diploma in Critical Care Nursing with Melbourne University. Michelle has always been a passionate leader and in 2002 travelled to Dublin Ireland where she supported the development of an ICU Nursing education and leadership program at the St James Hospital National Burns Unit. In 2005 Michelle returned to Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit and became the Nurse Unit Manager in 2007. Michelle took a slight career break from 2010 – 2013 where she was on Maternity leave and had two beautiful girls. Michelle Returned to Royal Melbourne hospital in 2013 on a secondment to the MH Victorian Comprehensive Cancer project and was the ICU transition and project lead for the integration of services across the Parkville precinct. Michelle returned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive care unit Nurse Unit Manager role in 2015 and supported the Intensive Care Unit transition to the new 42 bed start of the art facility in 2016.

In 2017 Michelle was awarded The Royal Melbourne Hospital Nurse of the year in leadership award and the Melbourne Health Chairman’s award – In recognition of her dedication, commitment and achievements in health.

2020 has seen Michelle lead two significant change management projects at Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit with her 400 strong team. The Development, training and implementation of an Electronic medical record in the Intensive care unit in line with a precinct wide approach.

And probably the most career significant is the development, training and implementation of the COVID Pandemic clinical, workforce and staff wellbeing plan to care for the surge in critically ill Victorians.

Deharne Style

Deharne Style has been nursing for more than three decades working in a variety of roles in Emergency and Intensive Care Units. Roles include Clinical Nurse Specialist, Clinical Nurse Consultant, ICU Liaison, CERS Coordinator, Nurse Educator, Nurse Unit Manager, Retrieval Nurse and Organ and Tissue Donation Specialist. Deharne is never afraid of a new challenge, she started competing in triathlons in her mid-forties and is always on the lookout to extend herself. Her passion for professional development is second only to her young family.

Dr Agness Tembo

Dr Tembo is an academic researcher and lecturer of Intensive and Critical Care Nursing at the Susan Wakil School of Nursing & Midwifery (Sydney Nursing School), University of Sydney, Australia. She is an expert in utilisation of qualitative methodologies to explore Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patient and family experience. Her specific passion is the use of existential philosophy to underpin phenomenological research. She focuses on the impact of ICU innovative strategies and treatments on the experience of patients and their families in intensive care and beyond. Her interests are haemodynamic monitoring, mechanical ventilation, sedation and analgesia, sleep deprivation, end of life care, intensive care follow-up including Covid 19. She is the founder of the Hunter Intensive Care Unit Support Group for ICU survivors and their families.