CONFERENCE CONVENOR:
Dr Rebekkah Middleton RN, PhD, MN(Res), BN, GC Emerg. Nursing, GC Management

BIOGRAPHY:
Bekk is a senior lecturer and the Academic Program Director in the School of Nursing at the University of Wollongong NSW Australia. She is passionate about how to best implement person-centred practice in student engagement and learning, and in the workplace. Bekk has been a member of the International Practice Development Collaborative for the past 5 years. She has key research interests in the impact of person-centred leadership on practice in the workplace and in student behaviours. Her teaching focus is person-centred practice, leadership, facilitation and implementation of knowledge to action.

CONFERENCE CONVENOR:
Professor Val Wilson RSCN RN BEdSt.MN (Research) PhD

BIOGRAPHY:
Val holds a joint appointment as Professor of Nursing Research at Illawarra & Shoalhaven Local Health District and the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. The focus of her role is on ‘working with’ clinicians to develop person centred approaches to care, that are both evidence based and take into account the needs of patients and their families. She has considerable research experience in qualitative approaches, mixed methods, action research and realist evaluation and has extensively presented and published the outcomes of her work. She has been an active member of the International Practice Development Collaborative for over 15 years. Her current research projects include for example an International study focusing on measurement of person centred KPI’s via an app, action research studies aimed at reducing falls, medication errors and pressure injuries, measuring safety attitudes of staff across a large acute care hospital, implementing a staff well-being program and developing compassionate leader. Her teaching focus is on person centred practice, leadership, reflection and facilitation of cultural change. She is currently supervising 12 HDR candidates.

SCIENTIFIC SUB-COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Dr Jenny Sim, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong     
Jenny has worked as a teaching and research focused academic for the last 11 years. Jenny has held previous Senior Management positions within NSW Health and has a total of 28 years of experience as a Registered Nurse, leader, academic and researcher. Jenny completed her PhD in 2015 on the topic of “Measuring the quality and safety of nursing practice”. Jenny’s post-doctoral research focuses on evaluation of the quality and safety of nursing practice in acute care hospitals in Australia. Jenny is particularly interested in understanding how the quantity and quality of nursing staff influence patient outcomes such as mortality, pressure injuries, falls, medication errors and healthcare associated infections. Jenny’s research aims to explore the linkages between nursing knowledge, attitudes of staff and nursing actions with improving patient outcomes and preventing avoidable adverse events. Jenny has experience in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research projects. This includes managing large datasets, survey development and evaluation, observational studies of practice in clinical settings, patient experience surveys, nursing workforce surveys, safety culture surveys as well as conducting focus groups and interviews. Jenny has extensive knowledge of current methods of evaluating healthcare practice.

SCIENTIFIC SUB-COMMITTEE:

• Cheryl Atherfold, Deputy Chief Nurse, Waikato District Health Board New Zealand
• Annette Solman, Chief Executive, Health Education and Training Institute (HETI), NSW Health
• Ritin Fernandez, Professor of Nursing, University of Wollongong and St. George Hospital                
• Simone Clare, Essentials of Care Nurse Manager, Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network                                          

SPONSORSHIP SUB-COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Suzanne Murray, Nurse Manager, Workforce Capabilities, Nursing & Midwifery Practice Development & Workforce Unit, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District

Suzanne Murray is the Nurse Manager Workforce Capability within the Nursing & Midwifery Practice and Workforce Unit, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District. Her role includes fostering excellence in compassionate leadership, clinical supervision and skilled facilitation to enable nursing and midwifery teams’ work towards providing and leading person centred compassionate care. Suzy is passionate about staff wellbeing and self-compassion, and how this can influence how we care for others. She is an associate lecturer at The University of Technology, Sydney in the post- graduate subject of Practice Development Facilitation and Education.

SPONSORSHIP SUB-COMMITTEE:

• Grant Kinghorn, Lecturer, School of Nursing, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia
• Victoria Traynor, Professor, School of Nursing/ Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia
                                

MARKETING SUB-COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Karen Tuqiri, Director of Nursing, The Prince of Wales Hospital

Karen Tuqiri, is currently the Director of Nursing at Prince of Wales Hospital. Using the person centred framework as a foundation, programs of work Karen leads focus on quality improvement and implementing evidence based practice change and has a special interest in the influence of leadership on workplace culture.

MARKETING SUB-COMMITTEE:

• Maria Mackay, Senior Lecturer School of Nursing, University of Wollongong
• Ross Clifton, Head of Students/Senior Lecturer, University of Wollongong        
• Dan Shaw, A/Nurse Manager Patience Experience, South Eastern Sydney LHD     

SOCIAL SUB-COMMITTEE CHAIR:
Denise Edgar, Nurse Manager, Nursing and Midwifery Unit, Wollongong Hospital

Denise Edgar is the nurse manager of the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health Districts Nursing and Midwifery Research Unit. A nurse for over 30 years, she has held a number of clinical and management positions, including Practice Development roles. She is passionate about cultures that enhance both patients experience and staff wellbeing. Many of the research projects she is involved contribute to enhanced person-centred practices (wellness programs, reflection, KPIs for person-centred practice). In addition to her research role Denise is the district clinical supervision coordinator and supports the development of clinicians to become clinical supervisors to assist their colleagues to reflect on their clinical practice and ensure it is evidence based and person-centred. She also supports the organisation in facilitating celebration and change.

SOCIAL SUB-COMMITTEE:

• Shahla Meedya, Senior lecturer at University of Wollongong (UOW) and BFHI advisory committee member in Australia                
• Carolyn Antoniou, Lecturer, School of Nursing, UOW                 
• Helen Pratt, Lecturer, School of Nursing, UOW                
• Sharon Morgan, Essentials of Care Coordinator, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District