Through the COVID-19 crisis, nursing & midwifery has been in the public eye more than ever. Nurses often are being seen as compassionate helpers. The public image of nursing, however, also consists of stereotypes such as nursing being a ‘doing’ profession. In addition, nurses themselves reinforce stereotypes in order to fit into what is expected, even when they believe professional behaviour demands otherwise. One thing is clear – these notions and stereotypes are far from true. This panel discussion will see nursing leaders at the forefront of innovative thinking share with you tips and strategies to bring about a systemic change to how a nurse & midwife views oneself and their contribution to the healthcare system into the future.

• What stereotypes and misconceptions do you observe being prevalent about the nursing and midwifery roles in today’s healthcare environment?
• How would you define the professional identity of the modern nurse? Has COVID created new opportunities?
• In what ways can we evolve organizational culture and policies to encourage a positive change in how nurses view themselves and how they are viewed by the broader community?
• What steps can nurses and midwives take on an individual level to bring about a change to traditional mindsets and perceptions?

Confirmed Panellists:

Veronica Casey

Executive Director, Nursing & Midwifery
Metro South Health

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Kate Veach

QNMU Acting Secretary
Queensland Nursing & Midwifery Union

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Kitty Hutchison

Chair of Nursing in the Community ACN Faculty
Australian College of Nursing

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Transitioning from education into actual practice is a daunting undertaking and something all nurses can relate to from their own careers. But are we really setting up our early career nurses and graduates to succeed? Two passionate, seasoned nurses on the frontline at CQ HHS realized that this was not the case – they found a lack of transitionary support across education to practice which graduate nurses often find too stressful.

Deciding to solve this problem, they developed the Books 2 Bedside Initiative. Through their story, they have a message to share about bringing change. In a time where skillset shortages abound and nurses are leaving their profession across the globe, this talk highlights the important role nurses can and must play today in by creating a sustainable environment and workforce capability for tomorrow.

• How a daughter’s experience sparked the need for change in the graduate nursing transition at CQ HHS
• Going from conceptualizing the Books 2 Beside Program on their time to CQ University incorporating it into their curriculum
• The importance of creating “safe spaces” for graduate and student nurses to develop skills and build confidence

Angela Parsons

Nurse Educator
Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service

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Karen Day

Nurse Educator
Central Queensland Hospital & Health Service

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Were the healthcare sector a country, it would be the first largest emitter on the planet! Passionate about addressing this challenge, Dr Aletha has led research into how we can reduce the impact of the health sector on climate and fast realized that nurses, forming majority of healthcare’s workforce, have the potential to be champions of this change.

Having set up the Climate Action Nurse Group recently and working with key stakeholders and associations, she is helping bring change that is crucial to a achieving a sustainable future for humanity. In Dr Aletha Ward’s words, “Climate change isn’t happening in the future, its happening now” – and with this message, she’s here to share:

• Understanding the massive effect healthcare has on the environment and carbon emissions
• Opportunities and steps nurses can take to build momentum, awareness and support for environmentally sustainable practices
• Why we don’t need to wait for anyone – starting with changes within ward and health service environments

Dr. Aletha Ward

Nursing Lecturer & Researcher
University of Southern Queensland

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Gavin Carson

Student Nurse
University of Southern Queensland

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Empowering nurses and recognizing their input in driving clinical excellence is tremendously important - not only for workforce morale but also for the genuine value their input can bring to improving care outcomes for patients and to driving practice that champions efficiency in the clinical setting. The state-wide PROV-ED Project has identified 15 improvement & innovation initiatives from EDs across the state; the majority being nurse-led, and facilitated widespread rollout.

The project has served to foster local capacity building within the nursing workforce and enhance the morale and motivation of nurses associated with these initiatives. It has also seen the creation of shared resources, enabling medical and nursing clinicians across the state to benefit, without having to re-invent the wheel. This talk will offer an insight into: 

• Empowering nurses to prioritize education and innovation to help promote Quality Improvement in an otherwise ‘always-on’ work environment
• Key nurse-led pilots supported by PROV-ED and their impact on care outcomes and clinicians 
• Hear from nurses about their experience with the PROV-ED Project

Tanya Milburn

Senior Project Officer - Clinical Nurse Consultant, PROV-ED Project
Queensland Health

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Gold Coast Health embarked on its journey to align with Magnet Standards in 2015 taking a whole of health service approach. Anita’s efforts were integral in this journey, from creating the business case to initiate this change at the health service through to 2020 where all the hospital(s) and community services across the healthservice achieved Magnet Recognition. As Australia’s first and only health service achieving this recognition at scale, Anita will document the challenges of introducing an entirely new way of working and its impact on workforce engagement, satisfaction, change resilience and evidence-based patient outcomes. She will highlight:

• How the health service managed change resistance to upskill and create a 100% graduate workforce foundation
• Bringing a cultural change to how frontline teams and leadership collaborate and problem solve to uphold a high standard of performance
• Aligning to 75 evidence-based indicators and measure of patient outcomes 
• The flow on impact on workforce satisfaction, retention and recruitment – why nurses love working at Gold Coast Health!

Dr Anita Bamford-Wade

Director of Nursing, Social Policy and Legislation
Queensland Health

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Sonia left the security of the NUM role in Queensland Health along with Dr. Nova Evans in March 2018 with the mission of reaching those individuals and families within the local community who were inherently vulnerable and were unable to access mainstream healthcare. Armed with a burning passion and a recognition of a missing link for these communities, Sunny Street started as a medical model on streets i.e. Sonia’s car boot! Today, it’s a QLD wide service which is now charting a national expansion path and her work saw her recognized as the Nursing Trailblazer of 2021 by the Australian Health Minister!

Sonia’s experience taught her a lot about the tremendous opportunity nurses have to be trailblazers, just like her, be it within their health service or outside of it. In this keynote, she will reflect on her journey to share advice and offer you an insight into:

• An insight into the nurse-led conversational model of care and person-centered culture at Sunny Street 
• Building a brand for nursing, care giving and empathy that patients recognize and appreciate
• Why nurses can and are agents of healthcare innovation and disruption and why change starts with you
• Embracing vulnerability and self-doubt – whether you’re looking to lead without or out of our organization

Sonia Martin

CEO
Sunny Street

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