17 - 18 March, 2021 |
International Convention Centre, Sydney
International Convention Centre, Sydney
Nursing and Midwifery Day One: Wednesday, 30 September 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
9:50 am - 10:00 am WELCOME ADDRESS FROM THE CHAIR
10:00 am - 10:30 am Keynote Presentation: The Future of Nursing in Australia
10:30 am - 11:00 am How Australia’s First Nursing eHealth Mentor is Enabling Collaborative Digital Decision Making at Metro South Health
Since 2014, Kerri held Australia’s first nursing eHealth mentor role to build engagement between clinicians and executives in digital decision-making and drive Metro South Health’s digital strategy and projects. Kerri will provide insight into role itself and how it can be adapted into other states that are embarking on a digital journey, including:
- What are the role and responsibilities for an eHealth mentor in a digital transformation?
- The importance of an informatics role to preparing the foundations postimplementation and helping clinicians and Executives through the digital journey
- Challenges in integrating this role into the system, including how to initiate open and frank discussions in an effective way while remaining patient-focused
11:00 am - 11:30 am Nursing Leadership & Culture: You Can’t Do One Without the Other
While nurses are the largest workforce by default, nurses are known for putting other’s needs ahead of their own and therefore not looking after themselves or each other. How do we change this culture, promote better staff wellbeing and bring the joy and fun back into the workplace?
Learn how to:
- Bring fun and respect back into the workplace through more transparent, heartfelt and authentic nursing leadership
- Lead by example and the importance of role modelling and visibility of senior nursing and midwifery leaders
- Build a culture that promotes work life balance, personal and professional development, including fun activities inside and outside of work to enable a commitment to staff wellness and wellbeing
- Ensure high performing teams that have the ability focus on the core business of the organisation to meet patient care expectations and enable an engaged workforce

Sonia Marshall
Executive Director of Nursing & MidwiferySouth Western Sydney Local Health District
11:30 am - 12:00 pm Session Reserved for Health Professionals Bank
Health Professional Bank Speaker
TBC
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm From Clinical to Management: Planning Your Transition from a Nurse On the Ground to Nursing Executive
Transitioning from nurse practitioner to nursing leader takes vision, courage, hard work and perseverance. To help prepare you for the ups and downs of transitioning into leadership, Jen – Winner of NSW Health’s 2018 employee of the year – will share her personal story, with insight into:
- The educational and professional track she pursued and finding her voice as a businessman by combining clinical care, business, and IT knowledge
- Bringing a unique perspective to the table: How your experience in clinical leadership and the business world of IT will guide people in the right direction
- Mentorship and the vast opportunities available in the industry for nurses considering advanced nursing careers
Jenny McKenzie
Nurse Practitioner Palliative CareMurrumbidgee Local Health District
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm Think Big but Start Small: Keeping up with Nursing Informatics and Health ICT in Nursing Practice
For nurses on the floor, their relationship with digital health is very different to a managers’ experience with digital. In order to successfully integrate technology into daily nursing practice, hospitals must close the gap in digital literacy and capacity. With 1,700 nurses and midwives in Bendigo Hospital, they are going back to the basics to close this skills gap and ensure solid foundations for digital.
Learn how to:
- Embed and integrate nursing tools into the EMR to ensure easy access to information at point of care
- Upskill workforce capability with regular training and mentorship programs to support nurses in their professional development
- Create visible and transparent leadership to support nurses on the ground and guide them through the digital transformation
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm The Power of Mentorship to Improve Wellbeing in the Workplace
We sometime spend more time at work than with our own families. So how can we ensure that time is useful and well spent?
Learn about:
- The importance of a mentoring relationship and top tips for choosing the right mentor for you!
- Being the captain of your own ship: how to set realistic goals and stick by them, and the power of accountability
- Not being afraid to ask for help: How you can make the most of your mentor relationship
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm Everyone Can Be a Leader if they Want to be: The Fundamentals for Leadership at the Bedside
Everyone has a part to play in leadership, no matter what their role. Learn how to recognise different leadership styles and master the fundamentals of leadership at the bedside, by:
- Viewing leadership as a behaviour, not a role
- Positively impacting your patient’s journey and empowering yourself and others with compassion, humility, resilience and strength
- Creating a positive, resilient culture through individual leadership, because everyone can have an impact
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm INTERACTIVE SESSION: Panel Discussion: The Reality of the Imposter Syndrome and How Do You Address it?
It’s common for graduates and emerging nursing leaders to feel inadequate on the transition to practice and experience the “imposter syndrome”. If you don’t address the issue, it will impact the professional development, motivation and retention of your graduates and emerging leaders. The participants on this panel will share their perspectives from different stages of their transition to help leadership better understand:
- What the imposter syndrome feels like and why graduates and emerging leaders develop these feelings of exclusion and inadequacy
- How to address the gap in knowledge
- The importance of empathy and seeing things from their perspective
Panelists:
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm Sexual Harassment and Assault of Nurses by Patients: Why Does it Happen and What Can We Do as a Workforce to Prevent it?
Nursing remains the most female dominated profession in the world with females accounting for approximately 90% of the workforce, internationally and domestically. Due to a number of factors, incidences of abuse are unlikely to be reported in a clinical environment and as a result, the nursing workforce continues to be subjected to physically and psychologically damaging behaviours. Tammie will discuss factors relating to sex-based harassment and assault in nursing and how we can safety-proof our workforce and workplaces.
Learn how to:
- Identify behaviors and actions that constitute sexual harassment and assault
- Support staff to lodge formal reporting, which is imperative for data collection and policy change as proof as impact on workforce
- Develop a ‘safety’ toolkit for de-escalating and removing oneself from a situation where sex-based harassment is being experienced
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Lessons Learned in the Palliative Care Agency’s Implementation of Voluntary Assisted Dying Across their Network
Palliative Care South East supports voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in Victoria. Since its legalisation of on 17 June 2018, they have normalised the practice and are continuing to roll out VAD across their agency.
Learn how they:
- Support staff through ongoing wellbeing checks and training and development to help them implement VAD, which is inherently challenging (both morally and ethically)
- Enable the culture shift while ensuring clients’ needs and expectations stay at the forefront of everything that they do
- Meet community expectations around VAD, support clients who aren’t eligible, employ trained GPs who are appropriately skilled to support clients through the process and provide ongoing grievance support for families
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm How to Keep Nursing Graduates Engaged: Building Resilience and Confidence in Graduate Programs
Burnout and compassion fatigue are major reasons why early career nurses leave the nursing profession. Consequently, helping graduates develop resilience and confidence in practice early in the transition process is important for their health and wellbeing, and their motivation to stay within the profession. All nurses and midwives have a responsibility to support new graduates to build resilience.
Erin will share her experiences as a current graduate nurse, and discuss:
- How those in leadership can support new graduates in building resilience and confidence
- The importance of mentorship to guide new nurses in managing the challenges of transitioning to practice
- Coping techniques early-career nurses can implement in their transition to build resilience and increase their confidence