Louise is the Infection Prevention Nurse Consultant within the Monash Health Residential InReach team. This team provides acute clinical care to residents within the 80+ public and private residential aged care facilities in the health service catchment area. Louise’s role includes IP support and education provision to these facilities. Prior to this she worked within the Monash Health Infection Prevention and Epidemiology (MH IP&E) team across both acute and residential care services of Monash Health. Following completion of her Infection Prevention qualification in 1990, she has been actively involved in Infection Prevention, working in both metropolitan and rural settings. She is a passionate exponent for the need to improve resident care through implementation and maintenance of a comprehensive infection prevention program.

Louise has augmented her professional knowledge and qualifications over her career. She has completed midwifery training at the Royal Women’s Hospital, a Graduate Certificate of Critical Care gaining a Monash University schools award for academic achievement. She is a nurse immuniser and has completed a Master of Education – Adult and workplace learning. Louise published an article on Infection Control Surveillance in Aged Care and has presented at Victorian and Australian seminars and conferences. Louise has been involved with several research projects contributing to publications in national and international peer reviewed journals as part of the MH IP & E team.

Sarah has been an RN for over 35 years and trained in the UK before moved to US in 1989. The majority of Sarah’s career has been in the acute care sector in California including 15 years in NICU, and the last 14 years in IPC. She also worked for Blue Cross Care in Victoria for four years.

She has facilitated many projects within the acute care sector for reducing healthcare-associated infections including a collaborative with the IHI to reduce patient readmissions from hospital-acquired pneumonia. The results of the project were presented at the national IHI conference in 2013. Sarah also partnered with Sutter Health in California on a research study for reducing healthcare associated pneumonia in the non-ventilated patient which was published in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC). She is an active member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Prevention and Control (APIC) and have presented posters of other project work at the national conferences.

Kelly Barton is an Infection Control Consultant with 13 years’ experience in the role at Alpine Health in Northeast Victoria.  Kelly recently completed her Masters in Infection Control at Griffith University in 2022. She is passionate about One Health, Aged Care and AMS.  She recently went to Cambodia with the charity Supporting Silk Sisters to help a rural referral hospital with their first ever accreditation preparations.

Penny Radalj is a registered nurse with qualifications in critical care nursing and infection prevention and control. My main area of clinical experience is 15 years of acute cardiac nursing. I have worked as an Infection Prevention and Control consultant for 12 years in a large regional health service and now for the Barwon South West Public Health Unit (BSW PHU). The past three years leading the BSW PHU supporting the 74 public and private residential aged care facilities in the Barwon South West region to provide advice and review IPC and acute respiratory outbreaks through onsite visits and offsite communication. I enjoy working with the BSW PHU as support to residential aged care in the BSW region.