ACP International Conference 2021

Clare is a Senior Lecturer in paramedicine at Charles Sturt University and is undertaking a PhD investigating the impact of volunteering on resilience in student paramedics. Her research interests relate to resilience and the promotion of health and wellbeing in emergency service workers, student paramedics and volunteer responders. She has extensive experience in the emergency services sector with over 20 years frontline experience and has held a number of leadership positions, including program lead of paramedicine at CSU and Chair of the Australasian College of Paramedicine Paramedic Wellbeing Special Interest Group.

An usual OHCA, with no Intensive Care Paramedic available, was managed by paramedics. With a difficult airway and spontaneous breathing whilst under CPR, the team went out of their scope to manage the patient. What set them up for success, and would they do it again? Andrew uses this case to discuss what paramedics can do to optimise their own success, and their peers successes, when working outside their designated scope of practice.

James started off as an ambulance volunteer while completing a degree at the University of Canterbury. After completing two years as a volunteer, James moved across to work for Clinical Support, frontline fulltime, and into a variety of project management and line management roles. After completing three years as the manager for Rural Otago, James became the manager accountable for volunteering within St John Ambulance, responsible for ambulance, first response, and major incident support volunteering. James has also completed a paramedicine degree, and is working towards a Masters in Business Administration, as well as continuing to volunteer on ambulances and first responding predominately around North Canterbury

Graduated from Charles Sturt University Bathurst in early 2021 with a Bachelor of Paramedicine and First class Honours. Now currently about 3 months into my Trainee year with NSW Ambulance as a paramedic.

Zainab has worked as a paramedic and a paramedic educator for more than five years. She has an interest in investigating the prehospital response to major trauma and cardiovascular emergencies. Zainab holds a master's degree in Emergency Health Services from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, US and a bachelor's degree in Paramedic Science from Jordan University of Science and Technology. She is currently a PhD candidate with the Department of Paramedicine, Monash University, investigating the epidemiology, outcomes, and prehospital management of traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

Dr Sonja Maria is a senior lecturer and associate head of paramedicine at Charles Sturt University in NSW, Australia. She has worked within paramedicine since 1996 in various roles such as the National Clinical Manager for Education and Delivery. This role designed and implemented policy and educational change within the ambulance service. In the past 9 years, Sonja has worked primarily in academia and has developed an international profile within paramedic-led research. She is chair of the Australasian Paramedic Clinical Guidelines committee who are pursuing the development of national paramedic guidelines for clinical practice.

Lily has been an ALS paramedic for six years, mostly around the northern suburbs of Melbourne. She has a background in youth and mental health work. Lily has recently completed an honours year in paramedicine, where she studied social status and pain. Lily has ridden along with ambulance services in the UK, New York, and Las Vegas. She has also worked in a clinic in Tanzania and a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Lily has strong interests in social determinants of health, health equity, and #FOAMEd.

Kristina is a dual registered paramedic in Australia and England with extensive experience in both clinical practice and paramedic education. Kristina’s experience of increasingly attending paediatric mental health cases, accompanied by the lack of age- appropriate screening tools, led her to conducting research to explore existing paediatric mental health screening and assessment tools utilised across the wider emergency care setting. She hopes that one day her research will contribute in assisting ambulance services across Australia to adopt paediatric mental health screening and assessment tools, and to further advocate for mental health reforms to be inclusive of paramedic practice.

Lucinda Mayor is the Course Coordinator for Bachelor of Paramedicine at ACU - Brisbane campus. Lucinda has extensive experience educating undergraduate and vocationally trained paramedics with almost 30 years in the industry and has worked across three states and territories.  Her research interests focus include: graduate practice readiness, transition to practice models and developing authentic learning and teaching to enhance student engagement  

Dr Alex Markwell is a senior Emergency Physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital and Chair of the Queensland Clinical Senate. She is a Senior Lecturer with the University of Queensland and has recently been appointed to the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Council of Advocacy, Practice and Partnerships. Alex is passionate about doctors' health, wellbeing, and work-life flexibility and is founding member of Wellness Resilience and Performance in Emergency Medicine (www.emrap.org).

Dr Scott Devenish has extensive tertiary education experience having held course, discipline, and school leadership roles at QUT. He is a Fellow with the Australasian College of Paramedicine and has contributed to the profession through achieving a PhD and numerous peer-reviewed publications as well as supervising four research higher degree (PhD/MPhil) candidates to completion. Scott has a passion for international engagement having built networks with overseas ambulance services and paramedic education programs, He is a research mentor for the Australasian College of Paramedicine and a program accreditation assessor for the Paramedicine Board of Australia and AHPRA.

Jane Goodwin [BN (1st Class Hons), MHealSc]: Jane is a registered nurse who has been the advance care planning (ACP) facilitator in Waitaha/Canterbury since 2013. She has a strong involvement with ACP nationally: chairing the national ACP Steering Group; working as a lead trainer for with the national ACP programme; and employed by the Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) as the senior project manager for advance care planning and shared goals of care.

Rob is one of the Chief Editors of the Life In The Fast Lane medical education blog, and the author of the LITFL ECG Library. He is an Emergency Medicine Senior Registrar currently based at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and is undertaking dual training in Paediatric Emergency Medicine. Rob has a special interest in integrating diagnostic and procedural ultrasound into pre-hospital and emergency department care, and has completed post-graduate qualifications in critical care echocardiography, abdominal, and DVT ultrasound. His passion lies in the ongoing creation of high-quality, free open access medical education material.

Anna Scott is an Intensive Care Flight Paramedic at the Otago Rescue Helicopter in Dunedin, New Zealand. She has worked on road and air ambulance in Dunedin since 2009. Prior to this she worked in North Queensland for the Queensland Ambulance Service. Anna’s passion is delivery of high quality equitable healthcare to all people, particularly those in rural and remote locations. When not dangling from a helicopter Anna enjoys competing with her dogs in sled dog sports and obedience competitions.

Darren Khodaverdi is a Consultant Emergency Physician at Dunedin Hospital, New Zealand. He completed undergraduate medical training at the University of Cambridge and emigrated to New Zealand in 2010 after an eighteen month-long stopover in South Australia. He has worked at Dunedin Hospital as a consultant since 2017 and is Director of Emergency Medicine Training. His professional interests are in environmental medicine, orthopaedics and trainee assessment. Outside of work he can be found spending time with his family and animals, and skiing and fencing with varying degrees of success.

Sally is the 10thSecretary of the ACTU. She was the leader of her Union, the ASU in NSW representing community, public sector and private sector workers. She commenced work with the ASU as an ACTU Trainee Organiser in 1994.Sally has also worked as a Pizza Hut delivery driver, shop assistant and cleaner and studied Philosophy at University.

Emma’s Paramedicine career began in 2001. She completed a clinical Master’s at medical school in 2012 and now practices clinically as a Paramedic Practitioner (FACPP) in Tasmania in addition to her academic career in postgraduate Paramedicine at UTAS. Emma is a founding board member of Australasian College of Paramedic Practitioners where she continues to develop defined career structures beyond registration for Paramedics and advocates for the legislative changes and organisational evolution that will enable Paramedics to practice as part of the broader Primary Health Care workforce.

Miss Berry completed her Bachelor of Biotechnology Degree (Hons) in 2013 with an investigation into genetic contributors to radiation resistance in prostate cancer, the results of which were published in 2014. Miss Berry has since been involved in research projects including investigations into prostate cancer, anaphylaxis, workplace health and bioactive foods. In 2019, she was awarded the Best Overall Research presentation for her research into prehospital anaphylaxis diagnoses. Her current role is coordinating and teaching evidence-based research methods to paramedic students at the University of Tasmania.

Leigh Parker is a Lecturer in Paramedicine at the University of Tasmania. She has worked in paramedicine since starting with Wellington Free Ambulance in the 1990’s. During her time with Wellington Free Leigh has worked as an Intensive Care Paramedic, in-service educator and lecturer at Whitireia Polytechnic. Leigh joined the team at the University of Tasmania in 2012 and enjoys teaching units that connect to her interests of aged care, obstetric and paediatric care and the professional practice of paramedics, including interprofessional learning. These areas of interest underpin Leigh’s research portfolio.

Richard is a lecturer in paramedicine at Australian Catholic University and has been a paramedic for 44 years. He has a PhD, Dip WHS, Adv Dip Hlth Sc, MPH, BBus and is currently studying a post graduate certificate in higher education. Richard was a director of Paramedics Australasia before it’s integration into the Australasian College of Paramedicine. He has developed a strong interest in the health of operational personnel in ambulance services. Richard’s focus is on improving the health, work life balance and support for ambulance personnel in Australia.

Justin Hunter is a nationally certified paramedic and flight paramedic. Justin is the Paramedicine Program Director and Associate Professor with Oklahoma State University – OKC. He is a current PhD candidate with Monash University with ambitions to move the EMS agenda forward by researching Situational Awareness and its effects on paramedicine and paramedicine education. Justin is an active paramedic in a busy 911-system in Norman, OK. Justin is also the founder and President of EMS Success, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to assisting EMTs and paramedics from across world.

Extensive History working in hospital capacity management and patient flow, most recently as a Nursing Director at the Metro North Patient Access and Coordination Hub (MN PACH). In July 2020, Matt was tasked with leading the Metro North Virtual ED project and together with a small team of dedicated colleagues successfully developed and implemented a service the first of its kind in Queensland.

Dr Jorian (Jo) Kippax is a Retrievalist and Retrieval Consultant with Ambulance Tasmania in the Aeromedical Retrieval (AMR) unit, working primarily with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) as well as an Emergency and Hyperbaric Medicine Specialist at the Royal Hobart Hospital. His areas of particular interest include trauma, environmental medicine and disaster preparedness. Besides his day job, Jo is an Officer in the Australian Defence Force, is involved with AUSMAT (deployed to the Philippines following Cyclone Yolanda as Clinical Lead and 2IC) and is involved with the Australian Antarctic Programme medical retrieval team. Jo was a keen expedition mountaineer claiming multiple Himalayan first ascents until his wife got utterly fed up with it all. He continues to enjoy rock-climbing, sneaky mountaineering trips, white-water paddling, diving and coastal sailing in his traditionally rigged open wooden sailing boat (or some completely contrived combination of the above) and trying to keep his kids at least vaguely safe doing the same sort of stuff.

Ruiyi is a critical care flight paramedic with the Queensland Ambulance Service. Over 13 years, she has worked in various metropolitan and regional areas, and is currently based in tropical north Queensland. Ruiyi is also a current member of the ACP Women in Paramedicine Special Interest Group. Ruiyi has a strong interest in diversity and equity, particularly for women in leadership, and is passionate about increasing opportunities for all members of the profession through mentorship and advocacy.

Isabel Jamieson (RN, PHD, BN, MNurse(Melb), CertAT) is a principal nursing lecturer at the Ara Institute of Canterbury and a senior nursing lecturer at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her areas of research include the healthcare workforce, models of clinical teaching and learning, nurses’ readiness to practice, the graduate nurse experience and career change. Her clinical background was perioperative nursing, surgical assisting, and infection control.

Cheryl Cameron is an Advanced Care Paramedic and the Director of Operations with Canadian Virtual Hospice. Across her career, she has held leadership, strategic policy, program development and education roles with post-secondary institutions, government and paramedic services. As faculty with Healthcare Excellence Canada, she is currently supporting numerous paramedic services across Canada to integrate palliative care into paramedicine. She is a fellow with the McNally Project for Paramedicine Research, and her research interests include mentoring, interprofessional/interdisciplinary education, quality and patient safety, female leadership advocacy and policy development.

Prior to moving to Australia in 2015, Matt spent 10 years working in the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. Matt has extensive experience in both paramedic and nursing Higher Education (HE) programs, and previously held the position of program leader for the undergraduate BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science (London) at the University of Greenwich, UK. Matt now coordinates courses in the areas of clinical leadership, mentorship, ethics and law. He has recently submitted his PhD which explored how first year student paramedics experience stress on their first ambulance placement.

Cameron is the current undergraduate program coordinator for the Monash University Bachelor of Paramedicine. Cameron holds a PhD in injury epidemiology and has research interests in work place injury, physical capacity evaluations, and Paramedicine education.

Patrick Suthers is a primary care paramedic working in the Region of Durham and County of Simcoe. He is presently an undergraduate student at Queen’s University, studying health sciences. He is new to research and hoping to transition into post graduate studies related to paramedicine.

Kelly is an educator and researcher within the Department of Paramedicine at Monash University. In her role she coordinates the Honours Research program, research units within the Masters program as well as managing the Department's PhD program. Kelly has a background in exercise science so has a real interest in the health and wellbeing of paramedics but is also really keen to see the skills of paramedics used in different roles in the healthcare sector. Ultimately, Kelly's aims is to engage as many paramedics and paramedic students as possible in research opportunities.

Dr Kathryn Eastwood ASM is a Research Fellow within the Prehospital Emergency Care -Australia and New Zealand (PEC-ANZ) Centre for Research Excellence and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. Her research areas include data linkage, secondary telephone triage, paediatric pain management, mathematical competence and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Kathryn is an experienced MICA paramedic with Ambulance Victoria since 2000 and she continues to practice in this role. Kathryn is a member of the Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) committee, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR), and a Fellow of the Australasian College of Paramedicine. In 2019 Kathryn received an Australia Day honor, the Ambulance Service Medal for her outstanding research, education and clinical contributions to Paramedicine in Australia.

Kris is a practising Intensive Care Paramedic and is currently Assistant Clinical Director for St John, where he is responsible for leading the development of out-of-hospital pathways for high-acuity conditions including STEMI, acute stroke and major trauma, as well as low acuity pathways for ambulance patients in partnership with District Health Boards (DHBs) and Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) such as falls prevention, smoking cessation, mental health and social support. Kris is also responsible for the development of clinical education for ambulance personnel, the Ambulance Sector Clinical Procedures and Guidelines (CPGs), clinical policies, and health sector stakeholder engagement. Prior to taking on national roles in St John, Kris was the pre-hospital lead for the Nelson Marlborough STEMI Pathway, New Zealand’s first comprehensive pre-hospital STEMI pathway involving pre-hospital fibrinolysis and direct transport of eligible patients to a PCI capable hospital. Kris is a trustee of the New Zealand Paramedic Education and Research Charitable Trust.

Alecka Miles is the Course Coordinator of the Master of Paramedic Practitioner course at Edith Cowan University and works as a Paramedic at a GP clinic in Perth, Western Australia. She is a long-suffering Melbourne Demons fan and proud ‘Mumma’ to Poppy (5 years) and Hamish (3 years), a career highlight and her greatest achievement so far. Despite expressing her concerns about research being a ‘waste of time’ as a M.A.S. graduate paramedic, she has since changed her tune and developed research interests in paramedic education and the roles for paramedics in primary health care in Australia/New Zealand. She has a Masters degree in Emergency Health and is currently undertaking her PhD and looks forward to dressing like a professor from Harry Potter when she graduates.

Ant Williams has swum 223 meters on a single breath. He has freedived to 100m and held his breath for 8 minutes. He holds the World Record as the deepest man under ice. Ant has pushed through both physical and mental barriers and he knows how to overcome some of the most demanding and uncomfortable challenges a person can face. Ant teaches others how to “lean into discomfort” and take positive, calculated risk.

Ruth is a former paramedic and lawyer turned academic who has an interest and expertise in paramedic law, ethics and professionalism. Ruth is currently a senior lecturer in paramedicine at Charles Sturt University and the legal member of the Paramedicine Council of NSW that manages complaints made against paramedics as a part of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation scheme.

Luke has a Masters in Osteopathy and worked for a short time as an Osteopath before joining the New South Wales Ambulance Service in 2008. Luke has an Advanced Diploma and Bachelor Degree in Prehospital Care. Luke worked as a Paramedic and then Intensive Care Paramedic in Western and South Western Sydney for 10 years. Luke qualified as a Critical Care Helicopter Paramedic in 2020 and currently works in North Western NSW at the Tamworth Helicopter Base. Luke lives in the Blue Mountains with his very patient wife and 3 young children 8, 4 and 3 months.

Libby’s love for caring for patients started with a short stint as a Registered Nurse. Libby then wanted to continue caring for patients but wanted to be outside. So, 20 years ago she joined NSW Ambulance. On road, she worked in the roles of Intensive Care and Extended care paramedic, Station Officer, Duty Operations Manager and as an Executive Staff Officer at state headquarters. She has also worked within the Sydney Control Centre as Call Taker, Control Centre Officer (dispatcher) and Duty Control Centre Officer. 7 years ago Libby began her training for the position of Critical Care Helicopter Paramedic. She now works full time in this role at the Sydney Helicopter base, with secondments to the Aeromedical Education and Training unit as a Paramedic Educator. Her wish to care for patients outdoors is certainly now a reality.

Steve Sunny Whitfield is an Australian-based paramedic academic, expedition leader, geographer, and writer with research interests in remote, polar and space medicine. He has experience in providing healthcare in remote and extreme environments that include humanitarian operations, high altitude expedition medicine, and flight, and retrieval medicine. Currently a lecturer at Griffith University School of Medicine (paramedicine), Steve is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Wilderness Medical Society.

Matt is a paramedic and postgraduate student. In his personal life he is joyfully married and has a beautiful golden retriever puppy called Waffles.

Caitlin Wilson is a PhD student at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom funded by the National Institute for Health Research Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. Her PhD explores how enhancing prehospital feedback can enrich emergency ambulance staff wellbeing, paramedic decision-making and prehospital patient safety. Caitlin is also a paramedic for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust and an Associate Editor for the British Paramedic Journal.

Caitlin Fitzgibbon (she/her) is a critical care registered nurse and paramedic who worked as an emergency department clinical nurse specialist before moving to the UK to work for the London Ambulance Service. Today, Caitlin is a lecturer in paramedicine at the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, and continues to remain clinical with Ambulance Victoria. She completed a Masters in Trauma in 2016 and is now a PhD candidate exploring the experiences of dual qualified nurse paramedics within Australian ambulance services. Caitlin is passionate about diversifying the paramedic role, finding solutions to the overwhelmed healthcare system, and improving health outcomes for the LGBTQI+ community.

Tegwyn is a PhD Candidate with Monash University's School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and an intensive care paramedic with Ambulance Victoria. Her research focuses on the paramedic's role in health education, and on the lives of older people living in rural and regional communities.

Katie Tunks Leach is a PhD candidate at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Since qualifying as a Registered Nurse she has specialised in emergency and trauma care, more recently focussing on clinical and tertiary education, and research on pastoral and spiritual care for paramedics and Defence personnel. She also volunteers as a chaplain for New South Wales Ambulance.

Paramedic honours graduate from Charles Sturt University in 2021. Currently working with New South Wales Ambulance as a paramedic intern. Interested in postgraduate research surrounding the management of hip fractures in the prehospital environment.

Samantha Allender is an experienced Paramedic of 16 years with 10 years working in all levels of Secondary Triage (ST) with Ambulance Victoria (AV), including being actively involved in the review of ST and its expansion to now triaging approximately 30% of all 000 calls at AV. In 2019, she took on the role of Project Manager for Ambulance Tasmania (AT) to manage the development and implementation of ST that was launched in February 2021. Undertaking this complex project has been a career highlight, and has seen her involved in every aspect of the project including governance and approvals within AT, the Department of Health and at the Cabinet level, identification, procurement and customisation of the patient management system, development of new workflows and processes, recruitment, training and development of a team, actively engaging with other agencies within Tasmania to building alternative clinical and care pathways to ensure that patients can be referred to services that align with their clinical presentation and ensuring a comprehensive public awareness and education program was implemented to inform the public of changes to ambulance service delivery.

Matthew Hill is a registered paramedic, Lecturer in Paramedicine at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and provisional PhD candidate at CQUniversity. With 10 years of experience working for Queensland Ambulance Service, Matt has undertaken several clinical roles including Advanced Care Paramedic II, Critical Care Paramedic, and Critical Care Flight Paramedic. During the past 5 years, Matt has also taught into the undergraduate and postgraduate Paramedic Science programs at CQUniversity. The main drivers for Matt’s research stem from his clinical experience as a paramedic and his experience as a Peer Support Officer, where he has developed a keen interest in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of paramedics and their families.

Lucinda is originally from Melbourne and moved to Sydney in April 2021 to begin work as a graduate paramedic with NSW Ambulance. Lucinda completed her Bachelor’s of Paramedicine at ACU in 2020 and is currently an Honours student at Monash University.

Dr. Aman Hussain is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Health at The University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Dr. Hussain completed his PhD at the University of Queensland. His research has focused on learning in high risk, high stress occupations (e.g., Firefighters, Paramedics). He also has significant interests in organizational leadership, performance psychology, and qualitative research methods.

Lindsey Boechler, EdD (Student), MA, ACP, is a Researcher with the Centre of Health Research, Improvement and Scholarship, Saskatchewan Polytechnic. She is an Advanced Care Paramedic and a qualitative researcher. Lindsey’s most current research includes studies pertaining to the experiences of frontline personnel during COVID-19, healthcare accessibility for marginalized populations, and virtual health supports.

Professor Vivienne Tippett is currently A/Head of School and Director of Research for the School of Clinical Sciences, QUT. Prior to joining QUT in 2012, she was the Director of the Australian Centre for Prehospital Research at QAS. She has extensive experience as a researcher and consultant in the emergency pre-hospital, health and emergency health systems and is widely published. Her work has been recognised with an OAM for services to para-medical education (2018); a Distinguished Service medal from QAS (2012) for services to paramedic research and a CRC Association national award for research innovation (2019). She is a Fellow of the Jamieson Trauma Institute at RBWH.

Lucy has been a paramedic for seven years, for both the Queensland Ambulance Service and Ambulance Tasmania. Since moving to Tasmania in 2017 and completing her postgraduate study, Lucy has split her time between patient facing duties as an Intensive Care Paramedic and project work in the Clinical Services division. Lucy has an interest in the provision of cardiac care to the Tasmanian community and has recently implemented the first stage of the Thrombolysis project across Tasmania. Lucy has also been a member of the ACPIC (formally PAIC) scientific and organising committee since 2019.

Alannah is a 3rd year Bachelor of Paramedicine (Honours) student at Charles Sturt University who has a deep interest in rural health and providing equity in access to emergency healthcare services. After completing her degree, she hopes to gain employment as a paramedic whilst also continuing her research into rural health and being an advocate for those living in rural and remote locations.

Michella is a Research Associate and PhD candidate in the Paramedicine team at Edith Cowan University (ECU), mother of four and an Ahpra registered non-practicing paramedic. In 2020, she completed her Master by Research project ‘Dr Google’ which reviewed online symptoms checkers accessible to the Australian public. For this research, she was awarded the Best Media Campaign by a HDR student at ECU. Her PhD project is focused on developing and evaluating an out-of-hospital immersive birthing simulation training program for paramedics using virtual reality technology.

Dr. Spelten is Associate Professor with La Trobe University Rural Health School and the Violet Vines Marshman Research Centre. Her work focusses on workforce innovation and quality of care. As an occupational psychologist, she has been privileged to work interdisciplinary with many different health care disciplines. She is principal supervisor of 7 regional PhD Students, three of which are industry PhDs with local rural organisations. She has received two awards for her translational research. Dr. Spelten is Deputy Editor of the Australian Journal of Rural Health and she has published more than 100 articles.

Vanessa is a post-doctoral researcher, working as a medical statistician for the Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU), at the University of Lincoln, UK. Her background is multidisciplinary and diverse. She holds a PhD in psychology and has developed expertise in statistical data analysis and research methods across various fields including biomedical sciences, neuroscience, and psychology. Her ongoing academic interests include medical statistics and intervention-based research

Polly Ford-Jones AEMCA, MA, PhD, is a Professor in Allied Health at Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning in Toronto, Canada. She is a practicing Primary Care Paramedic in southern Ontario and a qualitative researcher. Her research focuses on issues of health equity, the social determinants of health, and emergency prehospital mental health and psychosocial care.

My name is Sarah and I am a final year BParamedicine(Hons) student at Charles Sturt University. I have a wide and varied background that has seen me travel the world, whilst gathering knowledge and skills along the way. I have previously worked as a neuroscientist, stem cell technician and midwife, and I pride myself on my passion for people. I am an avid advocate for research, which inspired my current Honours thesis into cardiogenic shock management. My goal is to make an impact on current understanding of cardiac presentations, which may improve protocols, treatment plans and patient outcomes overall.

Wendy Allison is the founder and Managing Director of KnowYourStuffNZ. Wendy has a background in event risk management and a degree in Criminology and Social Policy with a focus on drug policy. She has been advocating for a harm reduction approach to drugs since 2008, and started KnowYourStuffNZ in 2014 when it became evident that direct action would be required to get movement towards change. She is interested in improving equity of access to harm reduction services.