Gold Coast Nurses' Conference 2021

Amanda has been working in diabetes education for over 20 years. She's been involved in setting up a hospital diabetes service, educating nurses through conferences, and onsite in aged care facilities, developing resources to simplify learning. For the past 15 years, Amanda has been working in private practice. Due to the increasing number of people developing type 2 diabetes, and the lack of education and resources available to many of them, Amanda has seen too many people with uncontrolled diabetes developing complications. This has been generally due to them not knowing the questions to ask their health professionals or having the skills and knowledge to effectively manage their condition. Her focus now is reaching as many people with type 2 diabetes as possible through online education and resources, to ensure they become the drivers of their diabetes, not passengers, and stay healthy to live the life they’ve worked for. She’ll continue to educate nurses to ensure their patients and residents receive the highest quality of care when in their facilities.

Sean Smith has had the privilege of working in health care for three decades in more than a dozen countries around the world. Commencing his clinical career as a registered nurse, Sean progressed into hospital management, before spending eight years as the CEO of a large healthcare provider. Sean has built two healthcare businesses and consulted to industry around health informatics, healthcare management, and healthcare strategy. Sean is currently the CEO and DON of Mackay Private Hospital and Adjunct Senior Lecturer for Flinders University’s Master of Hospital Administration degree in China. Sean has experience with clinical and non-clinical systems planning, implementation, and deployment in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the United Kingdom. With a passion for healthcare education, Sean has educated from university healthcare students in Australia to community health workers in Papua New Guinea. Sean provides clear, concise consultation through his experience in clinical management and information technology, to ensure projects are delivered with the best possible outcomes for all stakeholders, on budget and on time. His passions are strategy in health care, quality in clinical practice, and excellence in health management. Sean holds a Master of Business Administration, a graduate diploma in advanced nursing, and is a member of the Australian Health Practitioner Registration Authority, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Health Informatics Society of Australia. Sean continues to provide leadership and strategic direction for all stakeholders to deliver the highest possible standards to exceed current and future healthcare needs.

Freda Fischer is a registered nurse with 20 years working clinically in a variety of intensive care and cardiac units. Since then she has had extensive experience as a nurse educator developing and teaching in programs for critical care, cardiac care and resuscitation, both in Australia and Singapore. Recently she has worked as a Clinical Lecturer, tutor, trainer and assessor, and maintains a special interest in all aspects of cardiac nursing and resuscitation. Freda has a Master of Education and Post Graduate Certificate in Clinical Practice (Cardiac)

Dale Long is a Registered Nurse who has worked in various cancer care, palliative care, and pain management roles in inpatient and domiciliary settings for the past 25 years in both Victoria and Queensland. She is an experienced presenter with a strong commitment to educating nurses to improve the quality of pain management delivered to patients. Dale is a member of the Australian Pain Society.

Debbie Rigby is a consultant clinical pharmacist from Brisbane. Since graduation with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Queensland, she has since obtained a graduate diploma in clinical pharmacy, certification in geriatric pharmacy, an advanced diploma in nutritional pharmacy, certification as an asthma educator, and she has become credentialed as an advanced practice pharmacist. Debbie is a director on the NPS MedicineWise Board; clinical reference lead to Australian Digital Health Agency; a member of the Veterans’ MATES Practitioner Reference Group, Australian Deprescribing Network; visiting fellow at QUT; and an adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Queensland. Debbie conducts home medicine reviews in collaboration with GPs in a medical centre and provides education to pharmacists, GPs, nurses, Nurse Practitioners and consumers. Debbie was the inaugural recipient of the AACP Consultant Pharmacist Award in 2008 and was awarded the 2001 PSA Australian Pharmacist of the Year, the PSA Qld Bowl of Hygeia in 2002 and the SHPA 2016 Australian Clinical Pharmacy Award. Last year, Debbie was voted the most influential woman in pharmacy.

Dr Sharon Latimer is a Registered Nurse with over 20 years’ clinical experience. Since 2009, she has taught into the Bachelor of Nursing program at Griffith University and undertaken clinical research. Dr Latimer is a Senior Research Fellow in Patient Safety, in a conjoint position between Griffith University and Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service. She completed her PhD in patient participation in pressure injury prevention in 2016 and her other research areas include medication safety and adult education. She has methodological experience in quantitative (surveys, observations), qualitative (interviews) and mixed methods (meta-synthesis). Dr Latimer has been awarded $1.9 million in grant funding and is an Associate Investigator on a NHMRC funded multi-site RCT testing the efficacy of prophylactic sacral dressings in preventing pressure injuries.