Invited Speakers

Lesley Siegloff

Lesley has had many years’ experience in the nursing profession during which time she has had what she calls an eclectic and most interesting experience as a nurse. Education is an abiding passion and has been a focus underpinning the way she has functioned in each of her roles whether in the past in clinical practice, as a hospital nurse educator and in-service educator and over the past 30years in health services management and leadership roles, 2 years in Jakarta and then predominantly in rural health and aged care in SA, NSW and Victoria. During this time she also undertook many important research projects focusing on rural nursing one of which was the NSW Health funded study of the Role of the Rural and Remote Nurse Practitioner- Wilcannia. 

In more recent years Lesley has worked in academic education and leadership roles in Ballarat University and LaTrobe University, Bendigo and currently at Flinders University. Lesley is one of those SA educators who cut their teeth in the tertiary education sector in those early days of the 1970s at Sturt SACAE. She left this position to fulfill a personal goal of learning about how health care organisations were managed so that she could return to education with a true understanding of this important activity having experienced the highs lows and even the pain of such roles. At the time of embarking on the  interesting professional journey where she ultimately  traversed various roles she always had a powerful wish to return to her tertiary education roots at Sturt, which of course is now Flinders University School of Nursing & Midwifery. She feels privileged to have achieved this and sees herself as generative, working with new academics to assist them to move forward in this complex academic world that nurses face today.

Prof Alison Kitson

Professor Alison Kitson, Dean of Nursing at the University of Adelaide since January 2009. In 2013 Professor Kitson was appointed as the Executive Director – Innovation and Reform of Nursing within the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and is also a Co- Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Practice South Australia (CEPSA), a collaborating centre of the Joanna Briggs Institute, and is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford in the UK. Before coming to Australia she held a number of strategic leadership and executive positions in one of the world’s largest professional organisations for nursing, the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom. Her research over the last 20 years has focused on knowledge translation (KT) activity relating to better understanding the mechanisms that enable new knowledge (in the forms of guidelines or innovations in practice such as new roles) to be introduced into clinical practice. She is internationally recognised for her work in this area, and in particular as the originator of one of the most widely cited and used KT frameworks, the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) Framework.

Prof Adrian Esterman

Professor Esterman is Chair of Biostatistics at the University of South Australia and an adjunct professor in the JCU School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He initially trained in statistics at the University of Bath, UK, followed by a Masters degree in medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and finally a PhD in epidemiology at Flinders University. He has nearly 40 years of experience as a biostatistical and epidemiological consultant. His career includes seven years as a WHO staff member based in Geneva and Copenhagen and 14 years as a Principal Epidemiologist with the South Australian government. He is a Chief Investigator on several million dollars of competitive grants, is a member of the editorial board of three scientific journals and is a reviewer for many others. He has an h-index of 33 with over 200 publications.

Dr Marian Eckert

Marion brings with her more than 25 years experience in the health care industry, working in various roles in South Australia and overseas.

Currently undertaking the Masters of Public Health through The University of Adelaide, previously completed a Professional Doctorate focused on a portfolio of research (both qualitative and quantitative) related to the methods of providing education for patients pending a cardiac intervention completed in 2003, through the University of Adelaide.  Masters of Nursing Science completed in 1998, Graduate Diploma of Cardiac Nursing, The University of Adelaide 1996 and the Cardiac Care Certificate and Hyperbaric Certificate, Royal Adelaide Hospital 1994 & 1992 and 1990 was awarded the Diploma of Applied Science, Flinders University of South Australia. 

 Marion has also completed less formal training in the areas of clinical practice improvement programs, diploma in training and assessment (TAA) and Certificate IV (TAE) through TAFE and SA Health funded senior leadership programs.  Her skills relate to a dedicated approach to improving the health outcomes of the community, through quality leadership, operational, and managerial experience, proven ability to identify clear strategic goals, partnerships and the ability to engage people at all levels to achieve quality outcomes.

Marion is driven by quality outcomes, through her involvement in direct clinical care, management and executive roles diversifying also to the Joanna Briggs Institute, and the Safety and Quality Unit based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.  She was an elected member of the Nurses Board of South Australia (2005-2010) and in 2006 was appointed to Nursing Director, Centre for Nursing, Midwifery Education and Research at the Flinders Medical Centre.  In 2009 she received a SA Health Award for Nursing and Midwifery Excellence, and her team at FMC was awarded the SA Health Award for Excellence in Non-Clinical Services in 2010.  In November 2012 she joined the Cancer Council SA as the General Manager – Cancer Control.  Whilst the challenges of the new role have a different focus, leadership is still defined by achieving positive results.   

Didy Button

Didy Button has been involved in nursing education for over 25 years at the tertiary level. She has been a finalist on two occasions in the HESTA Australian Nursing awards in the education innovation category in 2009 for and 2012. The nomination in 2009 recognised Didy and her team’s development of an online study aid to develop health professional communication in undergraduate students . In 2012 Didy was part of a team that developed an online game to improve medication terminology recognition and pronunciation to assist nursing students whose first language is not English. In 2011 Didy and her team received and Australian Teaching and Learning Council (ALTC) citation for the online health professional communication development study aid and its sustained success in the undergraduate program at Flinders University School of Nursing & Midwifery.

Didy is currently researching how Australian undergraduate nursing students and their educators use computer information technology as part of her Doctor of Philosophy studies.

Juliet Keaton

Juliet has been a registered nurse for 27years and has worked across the acute, residential and community care sectors. She developed a particular interest in wound management and currently sits as Treasurer of the Australian Wound Management Association WA.

Daniel McDonald

Daniel McDonald has worked as a librarian for the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service for the past 7 years. During this time he has established a clinical liaison role with Oncology and Palliative Care, and with the Acute Pain Service. He spoke of his work with the APS at the 2011 Australia New Zealand Society of Pain Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting. Daniel has also designed and implemented a service that seeks to collect online audio presentations and make them accessible to clinicians. This project was awarded the 2011 Health Libraries Australia Innovation Award and was one of three finalists in the 2011 ALIA Information Online Group Excellence Award. Daniel has spoken of this project at conferences in Brisbane, Canberra and Brussels, and has also published on this work.

Kim Patra

Kim is an expatriate nurse who has lived and worked in Bali for almost three decades. Kim grew up and qualified as a nurse & midwife in Australia, and is now a registered member of I.B.I., the Association of Indonesian Midwives. 

Kim has spent the best part of her adult years in Bali during which she has gained a deep understanding of the local language, culture and religion. Her unique perspective gives her an extensive understanding of the challenges that expatriates face when dealing with the local medical services whether it be for birthing or other general medical services.

It was not so long ago on Bali that information of any kind was hard to come by on the Island, so if there was a health issue, Expats called on her for all kinds of advice. Few long term expatriates have not had cause to call upon her expertise at some time or another. 
Kims involvement was pivotal in the Bali bombing that took place in the morning of October 13th 2002. She was one of hundreds of medical volunteers and professionals who arrived on that horrific scene during the first traumatic days following the destruction of a busy Kuta nightspot that claimed the lives of hundreds, wounding and maiming many more.

Kim Patra’s book, In The Arms of The Angels, is a poignant account of that horrible event through the eyes of a health professional, an expatriate, a woman and a mother. It is a true story told with empathy, humor and grace as she salutes her colleagues, her peers and her patients. 

Over the past several decades Kim has taken on several health challenges flying as a nurse escort for over 10 years, writing an informative health column on the local expatriate paper for as long, and initiating a mobile health care service which has now progressed into a clinic where she practices as an independent nurse / midwife.

Kim is also active in supporting HIV affected children on the Island.