17 - 18 March, 2021 |
International Convention Centre, Sydney
International Convention Centre, Sydney
Healthcare Workforce Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Health Facilities Design & Development Day One: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Health Facilities Design & Development Day Two: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Digital Healthcare Day One: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Digital Healthcare Day Two: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Aged Care Day One: Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Aged Care Day Two: Thursday, 18 March 2021
Nursing and Midwifery Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Nursing and Midwifery Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Patient Experience Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Patient Experience Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
GPs and Primary Healthcare Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
GPs and Primary Healthcare Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Healthcare Workforce Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Healthcare Workforce Day Two: Thursday, 1 October 2020
Start Ups: Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Women In Leadership: Thursday, 1 October 2020
10:20 am - 10:30 am WELCOME ADDRESS FROM THE CHAIR
10:30 am - 11:00 am Keynote Presentation: Increasing the Retention of the Workforce through a Value-Based Leadership Initiative
Home Nursing Group obtained a set of authentic values based on staff feedback and experience to develop a recruitment and retention strategy referred to as a value-based leadership initiative. These values were developed to outline clear expectations of performance which has decreased staff turnover below 25%.
Learn how to:
- Create a set of values that set the expectations of staff to retain workforce starting at the recruitment process
- Develop a value-based leadership initiative that focuses on culture and inclusion to increase the retention of your workforce
- Create an inclusive values based communication strategy for your business to align customer and staff engagement
- Ensure that your organisation has the capacity to deliver change through the value based leadership initiative to impact the immediate workforce
11:00 am - 11:30 am Digital Nursing Workforce Transformation: The Increasing Value of the Executive Nursing Informatics Role Within Health Organisations
An executive nursing informatics role has the crucial expertise to support and drive successful planning, implementation, workforce adoption and management of both digital technologies and new models of care within any healthcare settings.
Learn how to:
- Recognise the national body, known as the ACN Chief Nursing Information Officer’s Community of Interest to understand what they advocate
- Identify how nurses and midwives play a critical role in ensuring clinical information and communication systems are designed to deliver high quality, coordinated care to all those living in Australia
- Outline the value of such a role going forward, calling on all healthcare organisations to look to establish a CNIO or equivalent position within their healthcare organisations

Sally Duncan
Chief Nursing & Midwifery Information OfficerNorthern Sydney Local Health District
11:30 am - 12:00 pm Solution Provider Session
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm Lessons Learnt Working in the Disability Sector: How to Culturally Transform Your Workforce
Achieve Australia, has implemented a workforce strategy for a growing workforce of more than 1,300 employees across NSW. At Achieve, the focus is driving work performance outcomes to create the best possible services for people with a disability and their families whilst ensuring a positive employee experience.
Learn how to:
- Start your model transformation with the strategy and business outcomes not the HR activity
- Shift workforce capability and improve client care through organisational redesign, linking your clinical governance framework to a capability framework, redesigning recruitment, learning, performance, and remuneration and benefits
- Focus on outcome driven results through a cultural transformation that goes beyond professions
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm INTERACTIVE SESSION - Panel Discussion: Introducing Staff Engagement Initiatives to Improve Workforce Productivity
Staff engagement initiatives motivate staff to contribute to the success of the organisation whilst maintaining their own sense of well-being. This can be achieved by building relationships between the organisation and staff to benefit the success of the future workforce.
Learn how to:
- Develop effective staff engagement initiatives to improve performance and productivity
- Use effective communication channels to engage with staff to build stronger relationships
- Prepare for the future workforce to improve service delivery and patient experience

Kathy Flanigan
Nursing Director - Emergency and Clinical Support Logan BaysideHealth Network

Tracy McCrohan
Strategic Workforce Planner and Onboarding Business PartnerAlbury Wodonga Health
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm How Austin Health Are Implementing a Supportive Learning Culture to Create Multi- Skilled Emerging Nurses
Austin Health is supporting nurses in the first 12 months of their career to help them become a well-rounded novice nurse to meet the demand of flow for the healthcare industry. The challenge is to continuously support a learning culture that encourages novice nurses to be a part of the future workforce.
Learn how to:
- Encourage nurses to remain in the workforce through incentive offerings such as benefit packages
- Foster a supportive learning culture to retain the next generation of workers past the first 12 months of employment
- Develop foundational programs to further support the continuous professional development of nurses to transition into the workforce
Carolyn Cochrane
Education CoordinatorAustin Health
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm How Western Sydney Local Health District is Using Advanced Technology to Develop Digital Workforce Capabilities
Western Sydney Local Health District is developing digital workforce capabilities by utilising advanced technology to train and develop the skills of healthcare professionals. Simulation technology, virtual reality and augmented reality are examples of the technology that is used to enhance multidisciplinary team education.
Learn how to:
- Identify the challenges of utilising advanced technology to educate healthcare professionals which may hinder their soft skills
- Utilise advanced technology to encourage multidisciplinary education systems
- Establish the need to horizon scan in the technology space to create a workforce fit for the future

Tanya Critchlow
Manager Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health EducationWestern Sydney Local Health District
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm How Logan Hospital is Using Effective Succession Planning to Build Future Healthcare Leaders
The cliental at Logan Hospital is considered low socio-economic with a culturally diverse patient flow which has posed as a challenge to attract the new emerging health care workforce. To overcome this challenge, the focus is on building strong relationships with new talent to mould them into future healthcare leaders through effective succession planning.
Learn how to:
- Identify and address healthcare workforce challenges in low-socio economic areas with over 220 languages
- Build relationships with the emerging workforce through social media channels such as Facebook
- Form an effective succession plan to create future healthcare leaders

Kathy Flanigan
Nursing Director - Emergency and Clinical Support Logan BaysideHealth Network
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm Recruiting for Specialist Health Roles in the Royal Australian Navy to Build a Sustainable Workforce
The Navy Health Workforce requires unique skill and capability requirements to ensure that the specialist healthcare workforce is attracting the right talent. To ensure this a capable workforce, they have created a more extensive recruitment process that uses a professional body with existing specialist health officers to help determine the best fit.
Learn how to:
- Identify the role capabilities for specialist healthcare workers in the Royal Australian Navy
- Develop a recruitment process that will utilise the experience and knowledge of specialist health officers to determine the best fit
- Provide in house training and specialist training to support the career development in a unique workforce
Captain Amanda Garlick
Director Fleet HealthRoyal Australian Navy
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm How Albury Wodonga Health’s Workforce Plan Assisted in Creating a Positive Culture and Increased Staff Engagement
Albury Wodonga Health had a particular hotspot within the organisation where they were seeing significant complaints in regards to alleged inappropriate workplace behaviour, bullying and harassment. They were witnessing divisions between management, surgeons and the nursing teams, and experienced high sick leave and staff turnover within this specific area.
Learn how they:
- Introduced a positive workplace behaviours program across the organisation
- Created and introduced a new structure to support the team
- Implemented a workforce plan that increased employee engagement, and workplace culture

Tracy McCrohan
Strategic Workforce Planner and Onboarding Business PartnerAlbury Wodonga Health
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Building Capabilities and Hands-On Experience among the Next Generation of Leaders and Managers Within NSW Health
NSW Health and the Health Education & Training Institute (HETI) are in their fourth year of running a program designed to support the professional and personal development of emerging or new managers and leaders in healthcare.
Learn how they:
- Link classroom learning with exposure to support the next generation of leaders in developing their leadership skills over a two year period
- Identified the key measure for success as the amount of support and mentoring participants receive in the workplace, creating a sense of real trajectory to their career
- Overcome the challenge of allowing opportunities to be fully realised despite all the pressures and complexes that happen in health