Christine Burrows - Australian Capital Territory
Christine Burrows trained as a Nurse and Midwife in Scotland from 1974 - 1979. She has worked as a midwife in Edinburgh, New Zealand and Melbourne.
In 1995 Christine completed a Bachelor of Nursing and qualified as a Child and Family Health Nurse in 1996.
After seven years in clinical practice with the City of Bayside Christine spent three years in management as MCH Coordinator with the City of Stonnington.
For two years during that time she was President of the Southern Region Maternal and Child Health Nurses Group and with the other committee members revived the group and increased attendance at the quarterly meetings.
Currently Christine is employed as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse in Canberra.
After the national conference in Adelaide this year it was realised it was important to have an ACT voice and be part of the National arena, and to this aim helped form the Child and Family Nurses Association ACT (CAFNAACT), hoping to promote the profession in the ACT and have our important work recognised.
And she loves to wear hats!
Karine Miller - Western Australia
Karine Miller is an RN, RM, G.Dip Nursing Education, P.Grad in Clinical Nursing (Midwifery), Child and Community Health Certificate, Mast. of Nursing(Community Practice).
She lives and works in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA. She has held the position of Regional Coordinator Community Nursing, Goldfields since 1998. Karine has a team of Community Nurse Managers, Community Nurses and Health workers, who are all dedicated to improving the health of rural people. Karine has always lived and worked in the country. Moving to Kalgoorlie-Boulder in 1986, she held various positions in the hospital, most notably 5 years as the Nurse Educator, prior to moving into a community setting. Karine has worked in various community positions and towns in the Goldfields of WA, and thoroughly enjoys the challenges of her work.
In 2006 she accepted an 18 month secondment to the Child and Adolescent Community Health Policy (Statewide) as a Project Officer to review and implement a new ‘Community Health Policy, Procedure and Guidelines’ manual for WA. She is a committee member with Community Health Nurses WA, and a WA representative on the board of Australian Association for Maternal, Child and Family Health Nurses.
Creina Mitchell - Queensland
Creina Mitchell is a registered nurse, midwife and maternal and child health nurse. Over the past 25 years she has worked in hospital, local government, state government and academic settings; predominately in areas related to maternal and child health.
Creina was the coordinator of the Child, Family and Community postgraduate nursing stream at La Trobe University, Victoria for over six years before she moved to Queensland in 2009. Currently she holds the position of Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University.
Since her move to Queensland, Creina has worked with other Queenslanders to establish the Queensland Child and Family Health Nurse Association (QCAFHNA), so Queensland has a voice on the National AAMCFHN Board. She continues to contribute to the maternal and child health nursing profession by active involvement in this newly formed state association. She was a member of the National AAMCFHN conference committee and worked with representatives from across Australia to organize the 2011 4th Biennial Conference held in Queensland at the Gold Coast.
Virginia Hunter - New South Wales
Virginia Hunter, R.N. C.M. C.M’craft. Ba.Adult.Edu. IBCLC.
Clinical Nurse Consultant, Child & Family Health, Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.
Child & Family Health Nurse and member of CAFHNA NSW since 1990. Member of the CAFHNA General Committee for the last 8 years.
CAFHNA NSW representative on the Australian Association Maternal Child & Family Health Nurses Board since 2006.
Gail Clee - Northern Territory
Gail Clee currently holds the full time position of Clinical Nurse Manager for a team of Child Health Nurses working in the Darwin community within the home and across 3 centres.
Gail has lived in Darwin since 1973, working initially as a midwife. Then she made the decision to move into what happened after birth and that required Child health training, Child Welfare it was called.
Gail had a break from nursing of 4 years apart from some casual night shifts again as a midwife, when my 3 girls were born and growing, but returned to community part time when the youngest was 4 years old.
Gail upgraded her qualifications through Flinders University in SA doing post grad Diploma of Nursing then Masters of Child Youth and Family Health. This has helped my involvement with NT Child and Family Nurses Group and through that the Paediatric and Child Health conference held in Darwin in 2008. This year is first time I have been involved with the national body.
Dr Julian Grant - South Australia
Julian is a lecturer in child and youth health at Flinders University South Australia. Having lived and worked in a range of rural, remote and metropolitan areas in Australia, Julian’s research and practice interests are driven by a social justice agenda of equity in health care for children and families.
Julian’s interests are directed towards understanding how child health professionals work with culture in the everyday work place of child and family health. Julian’s recent research extends into structural and professional frameworks that support refugees who are parenting in a new country of Australia.
Julian is currently working with the Australian refugee foundation and Migrant health to explore how parents who are refugees develop parenting capacity in a new country.
In her spare time Julian and her partner are kept busy with two teenage children, two dogs, three chickens, a vegetable garden, a house renovation, and long walks on the beach!
Libby Dawson - Tasmania
Libby Dawson is employed as a Nurse Unit Manager for Child Health and Parenting Service in Tasmania. Libby began her career in 1973 when she began an apprenticeship based nursing system to become a Registered Nurse in 1976. She completed a Bachelor of Health Science (including Family and Child Health Nursing) in 1992 and went on to complete Master Of Health Science (Rural and Remote) in 2001, a Diploma of Business, 2002 and a Graduate Diploma of Infant Mental Health in 2008.
In 1993, she joined the Family and Child Health Service to consolidate her learning, beginning by practising in a rural community and later moving to an urban centre closer to home. She came into the management role in 2000. Being responsible for a small team of Child Health Nurses, the Parenting Centre and c u @ home nurse home-visitor team.
She was a founding member of the Tasmanian College of Family and Child Health Nurses Inc and also the first representative for Tasmania on the National body.
She has been a member of the Editorial board of the Community Paediatric Review Committee since 1998 assisting in writing and editing articles for child health nurses across Australia.
"Recently setting up a home visiting program for first-time mothers aged 15-19 years across Tasmania. This project has combined my passion for a broader health perspective for families and utilised the skills I have been forming over the last few years."
Dr carolyn Briggs - New South Wales
I have a longstanding interest in primary health care, and have had the privilege of enjoying a career in child and family health nursing, working at various times as a clinician, educator and researcher. I have always sought to retain strong links with child and family health nurses in clinical practice, and have been active in the Child and Family Health Nurses Association (NSW) Inc. for the past 20 years.
My particular interest is health policy for children and families and I have represented the views of child and family health nurses on federal and state government committees. My professional doctorate was on the impact of the NSW Government’s Families First Initiative on child and family health nursing services.
I hold the position of Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Nursing Midwifery and Health at the University of Technology, Sydney and am a member of the Centre for Midwifery, Child and Family Health as well as the Centre for Child and Youth – Culture and Wellbeing at UTS.
My teaching is mainly in health promotion and child and family health and I coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Child and Family Health Nursing at UTS.
Christine Long - Tasmania
I have a strong background in mental health nursing and came into child and family health as Director of Nursing over a decade ago. I hold a BA (with a psychology major) and a MBA (with a focus on leadership). Most importantly, I have a strong passion for children and families and have found my niche in the workforce. This led me to complete my Graduate Diploma of Nursing (child and family health) a couple of years ago and I try to do some clinical work on a regular basis but I’m happy to admit I’m still on a steep learning curve.
Janice Finlayson - Queensland
Janice Finlayson is a registered nurse with qualifications in midwifery (NSW), training and assessment (QLD) and Graduate Diploma’s in Community Health (VIC) and Maternal and Child Health (VIC).
She has focused her expertise in bringing innovation into child and family health programs; including writing and coordinating the implementation of the award winning, ‘Health Start – Birth to Five Years’ Program in Far West NSW.
Currently, she is the Nurse Educator with the Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program Support Service. Her role is to provide expertise in child and family health; core curriculum education and training; professional development and ongoing support nationally to the ANFPP teams across the implementing sites.
Following the AAMCFHN Conference in Adelaide, she became involved in the Queensland Child And Family Health Nurses Association (QCAFHNA) Incorporated. She was appointed Vice President in 2010 (‘Sue thinks this is succession planning – we let her think that!’), and in 2011 was accepted as one of the Queensland representative on the board of Australian Association for Maternal, Child and Family Health Nurses.
Joanne Fittock - Victoria
Joanne Fittock qualified as a Maternal and Child Health Nurse more than 20 years ago after completing a Bachelor of Nursing (1990) and Graduate Diploma in Advanced Nursing (Child, Family and Community) at La Trobe University (1992). Her General Nursing qualification was obtained through a three year hospital training course in Adelaide (1978) and Midwifery by hospital training in Brisbane (1979). Recently, she completed a Master of Nursing Science at La Trobe University (2010).
Over the years Joanne has had lots of different experiences in maternal and child health. She has enjoyed work in clinical practice at various councils and an Early Parenting Centre. Joanne has worked in management as a Co-ordinator of Maternal and Child Health Services for seven years at the City of Darebin and for the last three years in her current position as Maternal & Child Health Co-ordinator at the City of Stonnington.
Joanne has held the position of President of the Victorian Association of Maternal & Child Health Nurses for the last two years. She is passionate about the important role that MCH nurses have in supporting and guiding families with parenting.
Alison Blake - Western Australia
After 18 years in private and public sector midwifery, I completed my studies in family and child health and began work in metropolitan Perth child health centres in 2002. I spent some years in a clinical nurse manager role before moving to a policy unit position leading the project to introduce PEDS and ASQ into the universal community health schedule statewide. Since 2009 I have been a coordinator of workforce development within Child and Adolescent Community Health, responsible for clinical community health education.
I became a member of CHNWA in 2004, and joined the Executive as Secretary in 2008. I was also a member of the WA Community Health Nurses Conference Committees held in Perth (2008) and Geraldton (2010).
Cathryn Eccles - Australian Capital Territory
RN, RM, Grad Cert in Child & Family Health, IBCLC, Paediatric nurse and NICU nurse.
Cathryn has spent the last 25 years working with women and children, and is passionate about breastfeeding and supporting families during their transition to the parenting role. I have worked in NSW and the ACT in various roles with more than 12 years on the early postnatal discharge programme.
I was involved in the accreditation of Calvary hospital baby friendly hospital initiative and worked within the patient safety and quality unit of ACT health.
I currently work as a Maternal and Child Health nurse in the ACT including being part of the Canberra Colleges Cares, a specialised programme run in association with the Department of Education empowering young mothers and families who are finishing their education.
I joined the ACT Maternal and Child Health Association last year when it was formed and look forward to working with the National board.