2017

24 November 2017 – CHA Nursing and Midwifery Symposium 2017, Melbourne

CHA Nursing and Midwifery Symposium 2017: Innovations in Nursing and Midwifery

Ashley Fell presentation, McCrindle (PDF)
McCrindle research resources
Naked Ambition presentation (PDF)
Daniel Pocock presentation (PDF)

10 November 2017 - CHA Pastoral Care Forum, Melbourne

Meet others involved in pastoral care in Catholic organisation and facilities, and listen to inspiring speakers about working with patients and families. Hear about the latest developments in research and policy development affecting pastoral care in hospitals, and aged care.

Speaker Presentations:

Rosalind Bradley – Session 1 presentation: Food for the Soul: Perspectives on Death and Dying (PDF)
Rosalind Bradley – Session 2 presentation: A World of Prayer: praying with people from other faith traditions (PDF)
Ilsa Hampton – Introduction to Meaningful Ageing Australia: Resources to support pastoral practitioners working with older people (PDF)

28-30 August 2017 - Catholic Health Australia's National Conference, Grand Chancellor, Hobart

Catholic Health Australia represents health and aged care providers from right across the country. It is a fantastic opportunity for all involved to come together and discuss important issues facing all Australians now and into the future. The Conference opens with a Welcome Reception on the evening of 28 August, followed by two full days of conferencing on 29 & 30 August.

For more information regarding any aspects of the conference please contact Deborah Reynolds at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

30 June 2017 - CHA Research Symposium, Sydney

The Research Symposium brings together CHA researchers from across Australia to encourage networking, learning, to celebrate achievements and ongoing initiatives in research, and - importantly - to showcase the essential work being done by all of you, within the Catholic health and aged care sector. 

This year's Symposium, the second of its kind, is packed with valuable content, delivered by distinguished researchers and academics including Prof Christine Bennett, Prof Margaret Somerville,  and a number of accomplished clinical researchers representing CHA's member health services. 

SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS

Session One:  Prof Christine Bennett AO | Prof Liz Lobb | Prof Jane Phillips | Dr Tamika Heiden

Session Two: Dr David Allen (Mercy Health) | Dr Anne Spence (Cabrini) | Prof Jo-anne Brien (St Vincent's Sydney) | Dr Johanna Barclay (Mater) | Dr Susan Mathers (Calvary) | Dr Tam Nguyen (St Vincent's Melbourne)

Session Three: Prof Margaret Somerville AM | Prof Jennifer Philip | Prof Suresh Sundram

2016

Aged Care Forum: Facing the Future with Home Care

Senior executives and managers of Catholic aged care services attended a forum in Sydney on 1 September 2016 to discuss how best to meet and navigate the challenges and opportunities stemming from the reforms of home care  and home support scheduled for 2017 and 2018. The purpose of the reforms is to increase consumer choice and control in accessing home care and home support services.

As well as receiving a briefing from the Department of Health on the reforms, the forum participants heard from, and engaged with, speakers on matters such as how best to operate in a more market-driven and competitive environment; how best to measure the consumer experience in order  to ensure responsive services; how to effectively manage and lead the organisational transformation that will be required;  and utilizing technology platforms to maximize organisational effectiveness and efficiency. The forum also heard about self-directed services, an innovation in service delivery designed to increase consumer control by allowing the consumer to employ their carer, as well as choose the services they prefer and when they are delivered.

As well as the Department, speakers were drawn from Catholic and other services currently preparing their organisations for the reforms, as well as marketing and change management professionals.

Presentations from the Forum include:

DoH Catholic Health Australia presentation

Nick Hartland presentation

Damian Foley CHA presentation

Effecting Change Management

CIO Aged Care Forum

Carlo Calogero presentation

CHA Aged Care Forum Roadmap pdf

Please note: Two Presenters wer unabel to make thier presentations available.

Catholic Health Australia's first Medical Research Symposium was held last Thursday, 5 May 2016 in Melbourne. Keynotes Sir Gustav Nossal and Prof Chris Baggoley were joined by St Vincent’s Prof Mark Cook, Cabrini’s Prof Rachelle Buchbinder, St John of God’s Prof Steve Webb, and Mercy Health’s Prof Susan Walker amongst others to present on their systems’ significant research initiatives.

Congratulations to the winners of the Rising Stars in Medical Research Awards: Dr Sue Harkness from Calvary Healthcare and Dr S. Liong from Mercy Health.

CHA thanks Alan Tuxford, representing major sponsor HPS Pharmacies, as well as Catholic Super for their generous support of the Medical Research Symposium. CHA also extends its thanks for the support of the sector's clinical researchers from right across Australia who helped to make the day such a meaningful learning experience.

 CHA Online Ethics Course - Decoding the Code -The inaugural CHA Online Ethics Course was launched with a face-to-face session on 22 April 2015 in Melbourne. The Mater Hospital Brisbance hosted a second cohort which commenced on 18 May 2015. A total of 112 participants have registered for the course from city and country locations and a range of organisations, comfirming the value of the online mode. The course was developed for executives, mission leaders, clinicians and pastoral practitioners with the aim being to enhance knowledge and practice of the principles of Catholic ethics.

2015

CHA Mission; Ethics Education and Pastoral Care Forums – 5, 6 and 7 May 2015

Three CHA forums - Mission, Ethics Education and Pastoral Care Forums were held in Sydney in early May 2015 with extremely positive feedback. Members indicated: how important it is to get together and network; how useful the content was, how affordable the days were and how valuable it would be to have some aspects available as webcasts.

The Mission Leaders Forum on 5 May workshopped new Pathways resources: Mission Reporting Framework, Formation Expectations Framework and a paper on the role of mission leaders in health and aged care.  The Ethics Education Seminar on 6 May focused on emerging ethical issues in aged care including advance care planning and end of life issues.  The Pastoral Care Forum on 7 May was a first for CHA and extremely well attended. The day focused on fostering pastoral care research and concluded with an inspiring presentation on a theology of pastoral care by Professor Maryanne Confoy.

19 March 2015 - Aged Care Forum

Leader Formation for Catholic Ministries: An Afternoon with Dr Larry O'Connell

On Tuesday, 20 January Dr Larry O'Connell, President and CEO of the Ministry Leadership Centre (MLC), offered valuable insights into the principles and process of forming leaders for the ministries of the Church. Almost forty representatives of CHA member Boards and Trustees, as well as key people from religious congregations and other Church agencies participated in a sample piece of the formation content and process developed by the MLC.

Click here to download MLC Overview presentation
Click here to download MLC The Vocational Dignity of the Worker presentation

Nursing & Midwifery Symposium 2015

This year's CHA Nursing & Midwifery Symposium, held at St Kilda, Melbourne, was a tremendous success. Catholic sector nurses and midwives from right across Australia gathered to meet, learn, share their knowledge and pitch impressive ideas for future innovation in Catholic health and aged care.

CHA's Chief Executive Officer, Suzanne Greenwood opened the day's proceedings with a rousing call to arms for all Catholic sector nurses and midwives. The message for the day: Our nurses and midwives are on the frontlines each day and night in our hospitals - they understand the difficulties that face the ongoing provision of exceptional Catholic care, yet overcome them and bring to the table great innovation and a proactive and steadfast spirit in their leadership.  

Janine Loader, Chair of CHA's Directors of Nursing & Midwifery Committee was MC for the day. Her message: innovation in health, even on the smallest scale, is something that Catholic sector nurses can be proud of; the strong reputation of Catholic healthcare relies on nurses standing up, sharing their experience, and being counted. 

Keynote speakers Margaret Banks and Cheryle Royle took many questions after the day's first session on the Revised National Standards. They shared practical insights into what works and what doesn't in the drive to improve safety and quality and the real drivers that dictate positive outcomes.

Tim Kirkman from RogenSi encouraged NUMs to 'lead from the front' and inspire greatness from their nurses. Acknowledging the difficult job all NUMs face in a busy hospital, Tim explained the importance of identifying priorities and tackling the most  important things first and in the right way.  

Approximately one hundred nurses from various hospitals and aged care facilities, spanning the length and breadth of the nation, brought their thoughts to the table, offering insights, challenging common practice or understandings and delivering practical, thought-provoking ideas for innovation in health.

'Shark Tank' session results: Chloe  Martinich and her partner, Rebecca Morris, from St Vincent's Melbourne won $2000 for their Anaesthetic Emergency Resources concept, winning the Patient Safety & Quality category. Nicky Cummins from Cabrini won another $2000 in the Technical Innovation category for her innovation, Just in Time Training - Basic and Advanced Life Support and Karin Laws, who came all the way from the Mater Hospital, Townsville, won the Cost Effectiveness category with her innovation, EN transition into Cath Lab, securing another prize of $2000. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all contestants - the quality of competition and variety of ideas was impressive and made deciding a winner a difficult task for our judges panel. 

CHA would like to thank all  involved in this year's Nursing & Midwifery Symposium. Thanks to Susan Biggar (Health Issues Centre Victoria), Lisa Ramshaw (APHA), Margaret Banks and Cheryle Royle, Tim Kirkman, our three 'Shark Tank' judges (pictured above from left to right), Phillip Black (RogenSi), Prof Michelle Campbell (ACU), and Russell Duncan (Telstra Health). Special thanks goes to Janine Loader and CHA's Directors of Nursing & Midwifery Committee, whose support and dedication made the this year's Nursing & Midwifery Symposium such a success.

2014

Nurse Symposium November 2014

Over 130 nursing and midwifery leaders from Catholic health facilities across Austalia attended CHA's 2nd Nursing and Midwifery Symposium which was held in Melbourne on 24 November 2014. The symposuim, which was ably chaired byAustralian College of Nursing CEO, Adjunct Professor Debra Thoms, heard a range of speakers who covered subjects as diverse as howto use social media to better engage clinical staff-especially younger people; how to provide positive feedback; and how to more effectively involve consumers in decisions about their care.

Delegates also had the opportunity to hear from the winners of the CHA Nursing Awards, who spoke in some detail about their inspiring work-often undertaken with little fanfare-which makes such a positive didderence to the lives of those they care for.

CHA would like to thank Hesta for their generous support of the event and the Catholic sector.

Proudly sponsored by HESTA